Fumbling in the dark

As we visited the house each day volunteer after volunteer approached us asking if they could help, what we needed, etc.  Bobby and I were at a loss for words the majority of the time and could only say, nothing we were fine, because honestly we didn’t know what we needed.  Finally after some coaxing one volunteer determined we needed help getting our belongings packed up and that we needed moving supplies.  I agreed to accept them and told her we would be back the next day to start packing. Arriving at the house the next morning we came up to find a small army of teenagers from the church down the street waiting to help box up all our belongings that survived.  We were touched and overwhelmed all at the same.  I didn’t know where to tell them to start so I just told them to pack what they could, I didn’t care how it was packed just that it needed to be packed and moved out.  Again our belongings were sheltered in the two rooms we felt were secure enough to hold everything until they could be moved to a better location.

We were drawing near to our wits ends by the time we found a storage unit to put our belongings in.  Oh the cost!  At this point in the story insurance had been hit or miss.  FEMA decided our house could not be deemed unsafe or uninhabitable, later the city would condemn it, that’s government for you.  Our cars had been assessed and checks were written.  Both, it seems could be fixed but the time it would take would be weeks.  I had no choice but to give mine up to the body shop, it was not drivable.  Bobby’s truck however we held on to as our only means of transportation.  Apparently rental cars were not covered in my auto insurance, something I didn’t know and would have gladly been paying for. We had yet to find a house to rent and we felt time was running out before the bad weather would arrive again.  Finally my father made a decision to come back up once again with a covered trailer.  He would get all he could and take it back to Opelika.  As we loaded box after box in the trailer I finally felt a sense of ease.  My belongings were going to be safe at home with my parents.  It is silly but they were all I had left I wanted them to stay unharmed. As I think back on it I wonder how much of it survived the frenzied packing and the hurried loading. I suppose I will find out one day.