Re: Re: [diabetes_int[ Web site to my Mom - The Prairie Rose

[Guest guest]

Webb wrote:

<< What a blessing the history of your family was to me! It brought

back so many memories. I was raised in the Minnesota- North

Dakota area. I lived in Fargo during my first thru seventh grades

and remember the tornado well. >>

What a small world, ! We lived on two farms near Gardner (just north of

Fargo, along the Red River), as well as a tiny German community in Minnesota

called Lastrup. We moved to Fargo in about 1953. (Our whole family actually

lived *inside* Shanley High School!) Then in 1956 we moved to 1333 10th

Avenue, which was right in the path of the big tornado. (We had just

finished fixing the house up, including sodding the lawn, new siding,

wallpaper, etc., but had not yet increased our homeowner's insurance.) In

1960 we moved to Detroit Lakes, Minnesota.

<< My dad worked for the Great Northern railroad and six children of his

coworker were killed in

the tornado. >>

There was an open field a block away from our house, and that family lived

just on the other side of the field, in a little housing development. Only

one child in that family, who was away from home, survived. An elderly woman

around the corner from us was killed as well. She was in her wheelchair on

her front porch and couldn't get indoors. No one in the neighborhood

realized it. We spent the tornado in an old coalbin in our basement. When

the roar ceased, Dad and I ran out to look through the basement window - and

we were looking straight up into the *eye* of the tornado!

<< I remember being loaded in the car to run from the

storm and seeing the tornado bearing down behind our car. >>

After that storm we all developed a powerful fear of tornados. When the next

one came along, we high-tailed it to a grain elevator (of all dumb moves)!

But that was better than our first choice: the railroad underpass (which

would have been flooded).

<< Most of my siblings are still farming in North Dakota but I

married an Air Force man and moved. >>

I was a long-haul trucker and hauled potatoes out of the Grafton area - in

the winter! It would be 10-20 below, with howling winds, and the locals

would just laugh and shrug it off.

, thank you for your healing words. There was another aspect of my life

that was causing me great frustration and pain. It was something that I had

no control over. But now that seems to be resolving. So I do think I am

being blessed. And my mother's passing was about as gentle as anyone could

hope for. She led a selfless, exemplary life. She certainly deserved a

pain-free departure.

Hugs,

Susie