Rocks and Rainbows

After the Flood

Sometime mid afternoon last Wednesday it stopped raining.  We saw an actual sunset, and folks started assessing the damage left behind by the flood waters.  One of the local news agencies had this picture posted on Facebook.  It's a rainbow over Barkers Island that seems to come right down behind the wall my Dad had built, that was destroyed.  I saw the picture right after I wrote my last blog.

I usually link to my blog on my Facebook page, and my sister in law commented right away that she would get me that rock.  I urged her to wait, like me, until morning, but I should have known better than that.

I got a call after dark asking if it was a brick wall, or a rock wall, because it appeared there was part of a rock wall left leaning at the bottom.  I said,  "Brick surrounding a rock wall is what it actually was."  Then my fifteen year old niece, under the supervision of her Mother, reached out over the rushing water and plucked me a rock.  A rock ( weighing a few pounds) that she proceeded to drop on her Mother's foot before the conversation was over.  A conversation that ended with "Oh crap!  Have to go, the Sherrif is shining us with his flashlight!" *click*

I did wait a full ten minutes before I called her back.  "Please tell me you aren't in the back of a squad?"  They weren't.  They were safe and sound on the way to Culvers, rock in tow.  We decided they would just drop it to me at work the next day.  I thanked my sister in law, and then read her the riot act about the potential danger of what they did.  My niece is infinitely more important to me than a rock!

The next day dawned clear and sunny, and found me super emotional about the wall.  I guess it was just another loss to grieve.  After so many, it surprised me that I was so upset about this, but what can you do?  I asked my sister in law not to bring the rock to me at work because I was just to emotional about it, and all the Goovers happened to be near by at the time, so they drove on over to my apartment with "The Rock" and presented it to me.  The little ones had no idea what was up, and were full of questions.  I shot their mother a look, took a deep breath, and told them the story. 

For whatever reason, the minute I had that rock in hand I was fine.  I don't need to display it, or even look at it.  I know it's here with me, and it's safe.  Something tangeable to hold from something I will never get to see again, built by someone I haven't seen in twenty years, and God willing it will be many more before I do.  I read my sister in law the riot act again, then gave her a big hug and said "Thank you.  You can never know how much that means."  Truth is, she has lost a parent, so she does know.

Like I wrote in my last blog, the legacy my Father left behind is his family.  The wall was just a wall, but it was kinda cool to drive by, point, and say "Hey, my Dad built that."