"MMMMMMMMaaaaaammmaaaaa!!!!"
I immediately jump to my feet and sprint to Brooklyn's room where the blood curdling screams continue.
"Mama, Mama" and I touch her face and immediately my hands become wet from the steady flow of tears that are spewing from her eyes under the high pressure of emotion. "Cut my TV back on, cut it on, I can't see! Where's my pillow? Help me Mama," as the sobbing continues.
With the darkness filling my eyes, I pat around the area until I can feel her hands. I place them on top of mine and make a breaking motion as if I were snapping a stick, and she immediately quietens to a calmer fret. This was the only way I could tell her the lights were out when my voice couldn't be heard. I went into the kitchen where my husband meets me. "What are you looking for?"
"A light!" I said with frustration when it seemed so obvious. He told me that his dad (who works for AL Power) claims that the electricity could be out all night due to the four power poles that had snapped under tenacious winds that howled thru the pastures, over the roof tops and deep into the core of all living animals that were desperately seeking a shield from the freezing blast.
He handed me a cold steel flashlight which I took back into my deaf child's room, who couldn't hear me tell her everything will be okay. I could feel my warm breath meet the cool air of our seventy five year old farm house. The desperate clicking from the rarely used gas heater spilled through the rooms as my husband tried to give us warmth, only audible by the two adults. I calmed my child who eventually fell back into somber when the battery operated light illuminated her room.
I retrieved the hand made quilts from the children's great grandmother and put one over each cub and I went back to bed. We slept until I was sure that the sunrise was in the near future, and I then heated water on the stove for my morning coffee. The power returned to us just after dawn and order was restored to the Blakely home. Sometimes when the ears don't work, and vision in impaired, a black out can lead to an all out freak out!
"MMMMMMMMaaaaaammmaaaaa!!!!"
I immediately jump to my feet and sprint to Brooklyn's room where the blood curdling screams continue.
"Mama, Mama" and I touch her face and immediately my hands become wet from the steady flow of tears that are spewing from her eyes under the high pressure of emotion. "Cut my TV back on, cut it on, I can't see! Where's my pillow? Help me Mama," as the sobbing continues.
With the darkness filling my eyes, I pat around the area until I can feel her hands. I place them on top of mine and make a breaking motion as if I were snapping a stick, and she immediately quietens to a calmer fret. This was the only way I could tell her the lights were out when my voice couldn't be heard. I went into the kitchen where my husband meets me. "What are you looking for?"
"A light!" I said with frustration when it seemed so obvious. He told me that his dad (who works for AL Power) claims that the electricity could be out all night due to the four power poles that had snapped under tenacious winds that howled thru the pastures, over the roof tops and deep into the core of all living animals that were desperately seeking a shield from the freezing blast.
He handed me a cold steel flashlight which I took back into my deaf child's room, who couldn't hear me tell her everything will be okay. I could feel my warm breath meet the cool air of our seventy five year old farm house. The desperate clicking from the rarely used gas heater spilled through the rooms as my husband tried to give us warmth, only audible by the two adults. I calmed my child who eventually fell back into somber when the battery operated light illuminated her room.
I retrieved the hand made quilts from the children's great grandmother and put one over each cub and I went back to bed. We slept until I was sure that the sunrise was in the near future, and I then heated water on the stove for my morning coffee. The power returned to us just after dawn and order was restored to the Blakely home. Sometimes when the ears don't work, and vision in impaired, a black out can lead to an all out freak out!