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Lesson Plans


Re:resiliant inspiring kid

[ Thread ][ Subject ][ Author ][ Date ]
Betty Bowen (bbowen.ok.us)
Thu, 6 May 1999 10:39:08 -0500

I spent yesterday helping my elderly retired first grade teacher aunt
evacuate what was left of her apartment a few blocks from "ground zero" in
Midwest City. Everything around us was torn to shreds and covered in a
strange papier-mache looking substance, a mix of mud, grass, and tiny shreds
of magazines. I found a slide of Haiti in my aunt's livingroom. She was safe
during the storm because she was visiting the hospital where my dad has been
in ICU for a week.

The apartment upstairs from her had been sucked up through the roof, except
for the fireplace and mantlepiece and the two small glass bowls of pot
pourri which remain untouched, silhouetted against open sky. The kid from
upstairs, AJ, about 15, thinks he can salvage his electric guitars, and was
so happy to find his cat, who had hid in the dryer. His mom was waiting in
the car, but he was stalling, big time. It was the only home he'd ever known
and it was clear he didn't want to leave, even though there was nothing much
left. He got really quiet, so I went a little way up the stairs to look
through the smashed windows to see if he was ok. He was standing in the
crushed glass, blowing soap bubbles and watching them float up through the
hole where the roof had been. I left quietly, but with all of the
destruction around us and the thousands left homeless, I'm going to keep
that image too.

Betty in Oklahoma