Flood Survivors Friday

Flood Survivors - Fridays will list an item that survived our Flood of 05. Bear with us during Fridays, I think these posts will be more for our family, to take a temporal inventory as it were. It will be nice to be "on this side" so to speak, producing I hope a gratitude.
Today's items are two things:


Violets and Chrystal Candlesticks.

Violets:

The violets not only survived the flood but, they survived in the original spot that they were planted in. Amazing considering how much every thing either floated away or was covered with mud and debris. These violets were even blooming the morning we left the Hut. It was so comforting to see these little guys continue to bloom during those first few months after the flood, they gave us a small sense of Normal. These Violets are special to us. They came from our first neighbor, Ma Mc Coy, she was 81 yearswhen we moved in. She had an amazing patch of Violets, and I would see her sitting on her bottom, picking violets, large bouquets to put in her small humble trailer home. She taught me when picking violets not to hold them in your hand, but to lay them gently on the ground. The violet stem is so tender, the heat from your hand would wilt them quicker. Its the way I pick them today.

The Chrystal Candlesticks:

These candlesticks are a present my Mom and Dad received on their wedding. They were in every celebration that our family had. To me they were sacred. Mom gave the candlesticks, and I treasured their memory of my childhood, but also that they were part of my children's life. The morning of the flood, our dirt driveway was only usable by foot, our church family began unloading the house quickly taking everything down the road to a safe spot. Moving in a" second" produces lots of packing options. These candle sticks, traveled out of our home, and down the road a half mile and then given to me in a grocery store bag. As some one took them out of the truck and walked them over to me, all I could hear was a very familiar sound, clunk clunk clunk. I knew immediately what was in that bag, that sound was heard many times when the candlesticks bumped into each other, that was a sound we didn't want to hear. But that morning, I nervously looked in the bag to see, what was left of the candlesticks. They were fine, perfectly fine. As I said these are sacred to me and they will always have a special spot in my heart.
Ny