Back on the Road

First of all, it is time to get off the island for a little bit.  ServePro has finished tearing out the house; Woody, Armando, and Samaritan’s Purse are working on the garage apartment, so, there is nothing we can do there except be in the way for now.  A massive amount of refuse removal must be done before we can begin to think about reconstruction, and, we need to get back to work.

So, it is time to be in Kentucky for the wonderful Cave Run Storytelling Festival.  This is the twenty-first year of the festival and I have been here eleven of those years. It has been a wonderful thing to watch the festival grow and solidify into its present mature state.

The festival happens on Cave Run Lake, at a National Forest site called Twin Knobs, located nine miles south of Morehead, Kentucky on Highway 801.  The tents are lakeside and beautiful in their setting and parking is right beside the main tent.

We started today with a day of school student field trips.  Students from five surrounding counties come every year, some of them taking very long bus trips to get here.  They are wonderful and practiced listeners who make it a joy to be with them.

Buses pull in and students arrive.

Tomorrow we will have another day with students filling three tents for the day.  When school is out, the mainstream part of the Festival begins and continues through Saturday evening.

Cave Run always programs very strongly.  This year I get to be here with Dianne Ferlatte, Peter Cook, Anne Rutherford, Josh Goforth, Delores Hydock, and Kim Weitkamp.  We are having a great time together.  This is a festival you should think of working into your future!

Dolores Hydock tells to Middle and High School Students.

The Wedding Happened!

I just got home on the last ferry of the day after the quick trip to New Orleans for Jonathan and Kahran’s wedding.  It was a great little trip and a wonderful wedding event.

They got married in a beautiful church in the Garden District.  I was going to perform the ceremony, but, after the stress of the Hurricane, my whole mind was running on exhaustion power, so, Kahran’s Uncle did the honors and did a much better job than I ever could have even thought of.  It was personable and funny and serious and impressive.  Everyone loved it.

It was a very happy day!

As soon as the ceremony was finished the entire party was led on a walking street parade by a brass band. We all walked behind the band from the church to the reception site.  The parade happened to fit into a little break in the thundershowers that had plagued the day.

On the parade route.

The reception site was a place called Eiffel, so named because the building itself was constructed out of materials removed from the Eiffel Tower during a major renovation to the observation and restaurant level.  The brass band stayed around and, after numerous roasts and speeches, played for the rest of the evening.

Kahran was beautiful and Jonathan was all shined up.  Jonathan’s son, Tommy, was precious.  All the relatives did themselves proud.  It was an event to remember and hold in all our hearts forever.

The wedding party at the reception.

Remembering Trish’s Dad

The very day that it was time to leave for New Orleans for Jonathan and Kahran’s wedding, the call came from Trish’s brother that their father had died.  We had been keeping in close touch for several weeks as he was getting weaker.

So, I headed to the airport to fly to New Orleans while I left Trish to pack and today to fly to Detroit.

Trish’s parents, Ralph and Betty Jones were married 68 years and still living in their home in Lake Orion, Michigan where they had lived for more than fifty years.  He died at home with family as was his desire.

Sixty-eight years of marriage!

Mr. Ralph was born and raised in Hot Springs, Arkansas.  It was there that he met Miss Betty when she came there from her home town of Poteau, Oklahoma, to go to nursing school at the old St. Joseph’s hospital.

They were married and had Trish and her three brothers while he had a full career of twenty years in the United States Navy.  After retirement, they moved to Lake Orion as the boys lived and worked nearby.  He became the Head Custodian at the new Pine Tree Elementary School, a position in which he helped raise hundreds of elementary school children while Betty continued her nursing career.

Ralph could fix almost anything: clocks and watches, locks and keys, most things mechanical.  He also gardened and kept bees at home.

My great treasure is that I got to join this wonderful family when Trish and I got married.  This includes her brothers, their wives, and their children and grandchildren as well as her dear parents.  My sadness is that I came along too late to know Mr. Ralph in the prime years of his life...I must depend on their stories!

The whole family in March of this year.

Turning Another Corner

Today I am flying to New Orleans for a quick weekend trip.  Our son, Jonathan, and his fiancée, Kahran, are getting married there tomorrow.  I was going to perform the ceremony, but, with my brain slightly undependable, Kahran’s Uncle will do that and I shall just get to be there.  It is good to have this little break/distraction before getting back home on Sunday evening.

Trish was going with me, but, yesterday morning the message came that her father had died in Lake Orion, Michigan.  He was ninety years old, as is her mother.  They were married 68 years.  So, instead of New Orleans for a wedding, Trish is headed to Michigan for family and funeral.  We will get back together at Cave Run at the end of next week.

Our house is almost all ripped out by now.  Next comes anti-bacterial sanitation and deep drying out. After that, we can begin to make plans for restoration.

Many people have asked about how they can help.  It is complicated because access to the island is very limited and there are no places to stay if you could get here.  If you have special thoughts or talents contact:
oracokedisasterrelief@gmail.com

The island has been divided into four zones with one of four organizations being responsible for each zone.  If you want to help them, here is the information about each of them:

Smaritanspurse.org

Baptistsonmission.org

Christianaidministries.org

Or email: twig@nccumc.org

You cannot bring anything to the island or come to the island without prior approved permission.

Thanks to everyone for continued support and concern!

The living room.  When the red piano goes, it will be all empty.

Wednesday’s Progress...

Two photos today will tell everything there is to tell about what is going on in our house, our hearts, and our lives.

This is our kitchen on April 30, 2018, the day the new remodel was finished and the kitchen was ready for its first use...seventeen months ago:

This is our kitchen this afternoon as Scott and Chris from the ServePro Team take it down past all the storm damage and bacterial pollution to the point at which we can start all over again:

We are much more fortunate than most of our neighbors on the island.

Dorian Recovery Progresses

Yesterday the insurance adjusters were able to get admission to the island.  We were assigned a wonderful couple, Taylor and Natalie Folkes, from a multi-generational family business in Kentucky. Taylor grew up learning from his father and his expertise, with Natalie’s partnership, is astounding.  They showed us things we would have never thought of.

When they finished it was time for ServePro to begin the tear-out of the house.  Our ServePro unit is from Cleveland, Ohio, and they are hardworking, efficient, and very personable and supportive.  Their leader, Andrew Myers, is so caring and thorough.  They will only do things the careful and right way.

Taylor determined that we had 54 inches of flood water.  It was Category 3 water, salt water polluted with sewage, gasoline, and diesel fuel.  Everything has to be removed from the ground up to four feet above floor level in the house.  As ServePro began the mitigation, they discovered that the insulation inside the walls was soaked and holding water two feet up inside the walls.

Our living room...the subfloor comes out next.

A little later in the day men arrived from the United Methodist Disaster Relief team from the North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church.  They are going to be the ones to cut out the fallen trees and remove those that are still leaning toward the house.

This big cedar tree starts in our yard but ends up on our neighbor’s house.

So, we are on the way.  Everything that could be repaired, restored, or saved (things above where water came) is now packed up on the second floor of the house.  We are happily living in the little garage apartment...we are so fortunate as most people have no place to live right now. The autumn weather is gorgeous and food for working.

Last. evening Michael Schramel of the the Flying Melon Restaurant made a huge quantity of jambalaya and he and Paula gave it away from the porch of the restaurant until it was all gone.we brought some to the workers at our house and also had some for ourselves.  Community wins once again!

Remembering Timpanogos

In the rush of getting home to deal with Hurricane Dorian, I have failed to say very much about the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival.  We were at Timpanogos when the news of the hurricane arrived and those lovely people cared for us with love and concern.

This was the thirtieth anniversary year for the Timpanogos Festival.  After outgrowing three locations, the Festival is now permanently settled in the amazingly gorgeous fifty-five acre Ashton Gardens, located at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, Utah.  Lehi is less than an hour south of Salt Lake City making the Gardens themselves a wonderful escape outing apart from the Festival.

Ashton Gardens at Thanksgiving Point.

The line-up for this Thirtieth Anniversary Festival was outstanding,  I got to be there with Anne Rutherford, Bil Lepp, Motoko, Simon Brooks, Sheila Starks Phillips, Andy Hedges, Tim Lowry, Antonio Rocha, Carmen Deedy, Beth Ohlsson, and Barbara McBride-Smith as well as twenty-four Youth Tellers who kicked off most hours with their own stories.

Gathering in the Garden Amphitheatre for the evening Storytelling concert.

Since Utah is such a family centered culture, the Festival includes a lot of music around the edges and even puppetry and crafts like pottery making for the kids who need a break from listening.  The evening concerts in the Garden Amphitheatre also begin with a musical pre-show.

On Sunday morning, when the Festival is all over, the tellers are invited to go with several festival committee members up to Salt Lake City to the Mormon Tabeenacle Choir weekly television broadcast, Music and the Spoken Word. This is the longest running broadcast event in the world, having started on the radio in 1929 and now running on more than 2,000 television and radio outlets world wide.   After this beautiful event, we all get to have a final brunch together before everyone departs for home.  This was a perfect send off for us on our way back to our little island.

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra performing at Temple Square.

If you are looking for a storytelling festival adventure to remember, check out the Timpanogos Festival.  It is the weekend after Labor Day each year.