Now I'm going a little farther back to the year 1991. I had three little ones.... My husband and I always went camping with the kids every summer. Sometimes we went with Jim and Tina and other times we went with Dean and Sheri. It always seemed like something was bound to happen. I never expected this in a million years.
I sorta had a bad feeling that night...
It was 4th of July weekend.
We had been planning this camping trip with Dean and Sheri and we packed the cars and headed out. Dean packed his car before work and went to work that night on the evening shift at his job.
Well, Sheri packed her own car and set up camp while Dean was at work. When he got to the Campground, low and behold there was an extra Tent. Dean packed one and so did Sheri. So we took advantage of it and set it up for Shanelle and Chellsea. That would give us more room in our tent for the Playpen for Joshua and our air mattress and all the home away from home things that I just can't live without while camping. I never rough it.... I have always been an over packer and I think someone needs to teach me how to pack. It's the funniest thing ever! I'm gone for a week and bring 10 pairs of shoes. I might want to wear a pair! I think I'm getting better about packing but I'm sure other people would totally disagree.
So we set up the tent for Shanelle and Chellsea and had a fun day at the Campground. Dean left for work and we got the girls to bed that night, and they were sleeping like little angels in their cozy tent.
Shanelle was 7 and Chellsea was 4. I knew they were little to be separated from us for the weekend, but their tent was right next to ours and I would barely sleep that night because I knew I was going to have that mother's ear hoping no one would unzip that tent and kidnap our baby girls. Mom's have that fear of out of site children something bad happening. Even though we were safe and Sheri's Tent was next to theirs. I still just had this...... feeling.....
Joshua was almost turning one in a couple of months. We put him to sleep in his playpen and he fell asleep like a little angel too from all that fresh air. We had the fan in our tent to blow the hot air around, I thought we would really be having a fun weekend at the Campground with our Dear Friends... But the storm had other ideas!
Like I said, the kids were sound asleep. I decided I wanted a baked potatoe with a sausage in the middle of it wrapped up in aluminum foil and set in the fire to cook. I carved out the middle of the potatoe, put my sausage in it and wrapped it up and set it in the fire. I told Steve to get me up when it was done, I was just going to go lay down for a few. I knew we wanted to hang out by the fire that night and have some drinks and giggles, but.... I felt so tired and needed a little rest. I got under the covers ontop of our air mattress and just sorta rested for a little bit. I actually was having a weird feeling. I was aware of where our tent was. Under a tree, and I could hear a distant storm heading our way. It sounded like bowling in the sky. It was pretty far away but I was praying it was heading in a different direction. We were in a tent and that's not much protection from a storm, and if it was a huge storm... We were in trouble! I laid on the air mattress all cozy and comfy but this thought just kept coming over me. It was..... What if lightning hits the tree and it falls on us while we are sleeping. I told myself to not sleep on my stomach or I won't be able to breathe. Then, the next thought was what if the lightning hits the tree and falls on us. I re-asurred myself in my mind and said, if the tree falls I'll sleep on my back so I can breathe if the tree falls on us. I know it sounds strange, but it's true..... I could hear the faint sprinkles of rain hitting the top of our tent... but it was nothing. We did not need an umbrella or anything like that, it was just a little drizzle I guess...
Steve got me up after a few minutes and said my yummy potatoe was done. So I unzipped the tent and went and ate the most delicious fire side baked potatoe with the sausage in the middle. It was so good because the potatoe actually tasted like sausage. I ate it and enjoyed every bite.
The bowling sound of the storm was getting a lot closer. The rain started to be more than just a drizzle. The winds picked up and we were in for one heck of a storm. We were running out of time and we rushed around and put anything that would get ruined away and covered up. We rolled up the windows of the car, we took all the dry towels off the line and just hurridly ran around camp and put things away.
Sheri went to her Tent, Dean was still at work.
Steve and I went to our tent where Joshua was in his playpen sleeping so soundly. We had that fan hooked up in the window and Steve thought it would be a good idea to unhook the fan and unplug it from the extension cord and then hurry up and zip the window back up to not let the rain it. I was more interested in shining the flashlight around the tent looking for mosquitoes that I did not want them to bite me in the middle of the night. He yelled at me and said, " Damn it Kathy, shine that flashlight over here so I can untie the knot and get this fan out of the screened tent window. So, I quit looking for mosquitoes and shined the light on the window so he could untie the fan. As soon as he untied the fan and set it on the ground.. We heard............ CRASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! saw nothing but white for it seemed like minutes and then smelled fire. I could not see anything but white. I could not hear anything the crash deafened me, The next thing I heard was, Steve swearing and panicking to get out of the tent and check on Shanelle and Chellsea in the tent next to us.
He ran out of that tent so fast and I could hear him swearing and panicking and the girls were screaming and crying and me, I was rocking on top of the air mattress with my hands folded and feeling like Dorothy on the Wizard of Oz saying to myself over and over and over, I want to go home, I want to go home, I want to go home. I could barely move and it all happened so fast. When the white light went away and I could see that we were all still alive I tried to lean over Joshua's play pen and scoop him up into my arms. I stopped in my tracks. I did not know if the metal around the playpen was electrified and if I touched it I was going to get a huge electrical shock of my life. I did not care at that moment. I just wanted Joshua in my arms. He was sound asleep and did not even wake up when I leaned over the playpen gingerly not touching the sides. I just touched him...... I grabbed him up so fast and just rocked with him. I was not going to go outside in that storm, No way.... Next thing I knew Steve was huffing and puffing and flew into our Tent and said some words that I dont' even remember. He had his robe on and it was soaking wet, he carried the girls to our car and got them inside, he was comming back for Joshua and I....
He flew into that tent so fast and scooped us up and got us into the car. We left everything. Sherri had heard the storm comming and was already in her car before the lightning struck..... And saw the whole thing from her car. I was in the car but it felt like a bad dream. The girls were crying, I was crying, Steve was panicking and ran back to the tent and got my purse and car keys. We left everything at the campground. We drove home and Sheri followed us as she left everything at the campground also.
We drove the hour home and that whole time, I was clenching the seat belt, hyper ventalating, not being able to breathe....... I looked over at Steve and he was driving the Car Naked....... His robe was so soaking wet, I still don't know where he put it, or threw it or anything. We were on the way home and we still could not hear anything but the ringing in our ears and seeing the flash of the lightning and the smell of fire. When that happens you run for your life... That's just what we did! I was hoping we were not going to get pulled over by the police on the way home, How could we even explain my naked husband driving the car in the middle of the night..
When we got home and got the girls in their beds and Joshua in his bed Sheri, Steve and I were in the house pacing, doing circles, going absolutely insane saying OMG, OMG, OMG. We were a wreck! Steve and Sheri and I were so mentally and physically drained the only thing we could think of to do was just settle down. Just settle down, that's all we kept thinking about.
Well, before we left for camping when we locked up the house to go, I leaned down and petted the new little white kitty that my girlfriend Genette had given to us. She was really super sick and could not take care of the cat. So I said yes, We only had the cat for a couple of days. When I was petting the cat, I saw something come out of it's butt. It was worms........ I screamed and threw that cat out of the house so fast he did not know what hit him. So the whole time we were camping I thought the cat would run away and find a new home. I was not going to tell Genette that, but that's what I was wishing for.
Well, Shanelle's room was just off the living room and she had a twin size water bed. Mom and Dad had one and she wanted one too. So here's Steve in the water bed, here's me in the water bed and here's Sheri in the water bed. The three of us were not going to leave each others sides for nothing that night.
We had Shanelle's bedroom window open. It's one of those windows that pushes out with some metal thing and then you fold the metal thing behind the other metal thing and it just opens the window just enough to get some air thru the window.
It opened just enough for that white cat to jump up onto the screen and cause this sound that made us all re-live the moment of the lightning. We all jumped out of that little tiny water bed and were doing circles around the house, it was totally like re-living that awful moment. Steve was hyperventalating this time. Sheri was crying, me...... I was a mess. Total panic attack and I knew I could not settle down it was the worst feeling ever. Sheri actually drove me to the hospital where they gave me some sort of valium or something. I was so relieved that no one in my family was hurt, and my girlfriend Sheri was fine.... It was all way too much for any of us grown adults!
When Sheri got me back home we all crawled back into that water bed and fell asleep. I don't remember a damn thing. I was out cold!
The next morning..... Steve and Sheri said to me, " Stay here Kathy, Steve and I are going to go back to the campground and go get all of our camping stuff. It was still really early in the morning and the kids were still sleeping. I just laid in bed and sobbed and Thanked GOD a million times for Sheri and Dean for bringing that extra tent. The fire in our tent was right at the spot between our air mattress and Joshua's playpen. I shiver at the thought saying that our daughter air mattress would have been in the spot where the fire was. Or so I thought......
Later that morning Steve and Sheri showed up back in our driveway. When they got out of the car and came in the house. The look on their faces said it all....... It was not good!
Steve said to me, " Kathy, I'm so glad you did not go back to the campground this morning, you would not have wanted to see what we saw. He held up his hat that he wore that day, it had melted and burned where the rivots were, he held up the baby food jars that we had for Joshua and each top of the baby food jars where there was a metal top was totally melted and and burned, he told me that Joshua's playpen was all scortched and burnt and that there were two burn holes in the tent, an enterance burn and an exit burn. I cried....
I then realized that all the diapers we had got all wet and I needed to go to the store and get some diapers. I got into the car and drove to Meijers just down the road from us. When I got to Meijer's I could see the sky turning green from another stom, so I hurried up and ran to the diaper department and wanted to get my butt out of there fast. That's when the power went out in Meijer's and I right that moment peed my pants from fear! It was just too soon, to scary for me.... Then the power came back on and I paid for the diapers and stood at the door to get out of Meijer's. I told GOD please give me strengh to get back to the car and not get hit by lightning. I can so remember standing next to the car with the key to the car in my hand and panicking because I was holding a metal key. My hand was shaking so bad I could barely get that key into the keyhole. Then when I did and got into the car, I immediately thought of all the power lines that I had to drive under on the way home. I was so scared at this moment I was shaking like a leaf. I decided to go the back roads so I did not have to pass under one power line. I was not going to take any chances. The whole ride home I prayed, and prayed and prayed. By the time I got into our driveway the storm was here and I could not get out of the car. I sat there for a few minutes and Steve was at the back door looking at me waiting for me to get out of the car and come inside. I could not do it..... I could not move, I was frozen scared!
Next thing I knew he was like superman. He came out the back door with this big blue blanket and opened up the car door and helped me out and I seriously think he carried me in. I was in tears with these wet pants on that I had just peed in at Meijer's and I was a mess.... A total friggin mess!
I got washed up and clean clothes on and then the storm was getting worse by the minute. It was here and right on top of us! I yelled for Steve to take the kids next door and to go into Grandpa Wilson's basement. Steve took Shanelle and Chellsea and Sheri took Joshua and ran next door. When it was my turn to run next door........ I looked at the back screen door and stood there not able to touch it. It was metal. I could not touch metal..... I was afraid, I thought I had this electrical current running thru me or something. I think being afraid so bad, my mind just told me Don't touch it! So there I stood at the door unable to open it and run for cover.
We were on the front page of the newspaper the next day........ I should have kept a copy of that article and post it now, but........... I did not want it... I did not want a reminder of what had happened to us. I wanted to forget it so fast. But I could not. To this day if it rains really hard and there's lightning, I won't be on the phone, I won't touch anything metal and I'm like a scared Momma all over again.. Total Traumatizing for this Momma!
That's when I knew I needed help with handeling things in my life. I needed to Thank God for sparing me and my children and my husband and girlfriend from harm.
I went to Church and got a sponsor and became Catholic. It was soooooooooo what I needed. I needed to Thank GOD...... I did..
That's when I also went to Confession..............
Yes I did....... I'm going to share with you something that I told the Priest. You are not going to believe what he told me............
© Kiki LaFleur-Wilson
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