The first item pulled out, was the small safe we had which held all my backup files, including our digital photos. The second item salvaged, was our flag. I bought this many years ago and really only put it out for holidays and occasionally when I would think of it. But that day, on July 11th, it struck me with such emotion that I felt I needed to put it up. The mount which had been on the side of the house was no where to be found, so I propped it up in a flower container. To me it said we are shaken and battle worn, but not defeated!
I'm not sure I can explain the emotional state I was in Monday and Tuesday, pulling together childcare and housing. Making sure we ate and drank enough to keep us standing. Grabbing lunch at McDonald's and listening to this young woman complain about how bad her day was and laughing as I thought, if you only knew dear! How many times have I grumbled about the mundane when someone within earshot was grieving a loss. Wow! Eye opening!
How do you explain to every person or business you are calling for help or assistance exactly what happened? My house blew over? My house was destroyed? I no longer have a home phone you can call, no that address is my permanent address, but I cannot receive packages there. I actually went hoarse that week and had to upgrade plans on my cell phone because of all the phone calls.
As the layers came off, I found great healing in climbing up on the current floor and taking in the scene. I had such emotional moments remembering building and decorating that particular room and now watching it be taken apart and disposed of. The whole process took eight days. Eight days to take apart what we had built together in eleven years! We referred to it as demolition, but really the derecho demolished the house for us, we just cleaned up the mess it made.
The field directly east of our property...I identified a light fixture from the west wall of the entry way about 80 yards into the rubble.
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