Foundations

On Memorial Day weekend of 2008, my sister’s world was turned upside down. An EF-3 tornado struck the community of Hugo, Minnesota where my sister lived. I was at home when I heard of the disaster. Fortunately, after a quick call to her, I determined her family was safe as they were visiting my parent’s lake home in northern Minnesota. I quickly jumped on the internet to see if I could find any information regarding the path of the tornado to see if her home was damaged.

I was able to find aerial video of the damage in a CNN report. After reviewing the video of the debris field a couple dozen times, I was finally able to pinpoint the exact location of the video and followed it until it came to her house. The house was missing its garage, and the roof of the house had been torn off. Their white Ford F-150 pickup was still parked on the garage slab, but the rest of the garage was gone.

At the same time, a friend of my brothers with the Ramsey County Sheriff’s office was able to enter the quarantine zone of the tornado torn neighborhood. My brother directed his friend block by block to my sister’s cul-de-sac. My sister and husband grew frustrated by the time it was taking to get to their street having given the address to my brother’s friend. “You don’t understand,” he said, “there are no street signs left to find the address.”

Finally, he came upon the house and was able to identify it by the license plate on their pickup truck. They packed up and headed home the next day. When they arrived, they found their subdivision locked down by law enforcement. They proceeded to the Hugo disaster center to get identification badges for entry into the subdivision and disaster relief packets.

When they were finally able to visit their house, they found it had been red tagged by the city’s building inspector, meaning the home was unsafe to live in and had to be torn down. It took my sister and her family close to a year to rebuild their home, and I suspect some of the emotional wounds have still not healed.

My sister’s experience came rushing back recently when an EF-3 tornado touched down in the Appleton and Menasha communities of Wisconsin. Once again, I had family located nearby (my sister-in-law, niece, and nephew), but fortunately, their homes and lives were not impacted.

Looking at the damage and watching interviews with shell shocked residents made me wonder about the resiliency of people.

The world is filled with stories of people rebuilding their lives after natural disasters. Whether it be tornados, hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires, or any number of the horrible tragedies we humans endure, it is in our nature to rebuild our homes and lives.

The question that I have been wrestling with in my head has not been the why, but the how. How are people able to rebuild when their lives come crashing down on top of them? I don’t mean financially. Obviously, insurance and disaster relief aid in recovery. I mean how are people capable of such resiliency emotionally and mentally.

After mulling over this question for a couple of weeks, I concluded that most people who rebuild their lives have built them with a solid foundation. Family, friends, neighbors, and their community step forward to assist. Whether it be clothing, shelter, food, or whatever the need, they are not alone in their effort to rebuild their lives.

I recently had a conversation with an individual who was faced with a very difficult situation. When I communicated to them my admiration of their strength and resiliency, they shrugged and said, “Well, it’s not like we have a choice.”

That may be true. But they also have a foundation of friends and family to support them as they navigate their challenges. Even strangers can step forward to lend a helping hand.

In life, we are constantly building foundations for ourselves. Whether at work, at home, or in our community. We never know when destiny will call our name and we are put to the test. In life, everyone needs a solid foundation on which to rebuild that can support the weight of our dreams. It is these foundations that stabilize our lives, guide us through turbulence, and help us rebuild or reshape our lives.

As our family marks another year since our world was rocked to its core with the loss of Amy, let us be mindful to not let go of the now. Let us use our time wisely to build solid foundations that make us resilient. And, given the opportunity, to step forward for others in their time of need.