The Next Stage

In one of the articles about the monster storm in my morning paper, a man commented that they would rebuild and that in a year, no one would remember any of this happening.

I know what he meant - the determination not to let this storm have the final say. However, I have news for him. He, and all of us, will remember this storm - again and again.

Traumatic events are not erased from our memories when we pick up life and go forward. Ask any one of my generation where they were when JFK was assassinated - and most of us can describe exactly where we were and what we were doing. Ditto with the assault on the Twin Towers in New York. I was sitting at my computer. I can remember my husband coming home and standing in the doorway of our study, saying a plane had flown into one of the towers - and the ashen look on his face.We remember - whether we were on the scene or not.

Just as women remember their childbirth stories - and retell them every time a younger woman announces she is pregnant. Just as yesterday, I tried to imagine being in labor in NYC when the power went out - and what it was like to be carried or helped down flights of stairs lit only by flashlight while in labor. And the story of the man who used his cell phone for illumination, so physicians could complete delivery of their baby.

Now that the brunt of the storm has passed and people begin the work of restoration, we will hear their stories. Because our stories are our way of coping with life's traumas. The stories of death and major loss - and the stories of the little things that no one thought of while preparing for the onslaught. Toilets that can't be flushed, because there is no water. Cell phone service disrupted and trying to find places to re-charge cell phones we so take for granted. Searching for places to be able to take a hot shower. And the little kindnesses that are erupting all over. Like spring flowers bursting forth after winter snows.

There is the process of restoring life - and acknowledging that life will never be the same as it was before this hurricane. We are all altered permanently by what happened.