“You don’t know what unconditional love is if you don’t have a child, you don’t know what that is.” – Regina King

So yesterday I finally got those rain gutters installed that the house so badly needed.

As the installers drove away I thought now I need rain to test those beautiful new gutters.

In my mind I performed an elaborate Indian Rain Dance. To test the new rain gutters. Got to test the gutters.

That night, the rain Gods obliged. With a vengeance. A mighty storm blew in from the Texas panhandle and spawned buckets of rain and………a nasty tornado.

A frantic pounding on our bedroom door at 1:30 am woke us with start. Our daughter announced with each desperate hammer – ‘WAKE UP.  A TORNADO IS HEADED OUR WAY.’

What the hell?

The TV was on and sure enough, they were telling us all to take cover as they tracked the beast moving relentlessly towards our neighborhood.

Tornado sirens wailed and rain pounded our fragile home. We huddled and prayed.

As if a final goodbye, my daughter cried I love you.

So there I sat with two women, a dog, a cat, and my thoughts.

What was I thinking as we wrapped arms and prayed? Important things like death? Praying for my soul?

No. I was thinking I should have waited one more day to install those gutters.

Damn.

“On the ‘Star,’ you were forced to learn to write a simple declarative sentence. This is useful to anyone.” – Ernest Hemmingway