Hurricane Elvis - 10 years later - Do you remember?

 

           A trip to the ER. Mother was having a spell with CHF (COPD). By 2 AM, July 22, 2003, we were seen by a doctor.  By 3 AM, Mother was admitted to Baptist East Hospital in Memphis, TN, and we were taken to a room. She was bedded down had drifted off to sleep. After all the admission procedures were accomplished, I stretched out on the sofa under the room-width window overlooking the gigantic roof-top air conditioner units. At 5 AM, a storm of enormous magnitude packing winds of 102 mph and torrential rain hit downtown Memphis and continued to rip through the city, heading directly east.
          The hospital air conditioner units were ripped from their tethers and propelled against the window of Mother’s room, shattering the double pane window and littering me with shards of glass.  Had it not been for the reinforced glass and blinds enclosed within the windows, the A/C units themselves would have rocketed onto the couch where I lay listening to gale-force wind, not realizing what was actually happening beyond the hospital fortress.
                           The generator for the hospital powered up and all patients were wheeled into the hallways.  Mother was moved to a different room, for hers was littered with glass fragments.  We had no clue as to the extent of the damage outside Baptist Hospital.       When I left to get some things for Mother and to check on Richard who was staying with neighbors, I saw a snippet of the unbelievable damage produced by these straight line hurricane-force winds, later nicknamed Hurricane Elvis.

What’s life like 10 years after Hurricane Elvis?

#1 – Elvis is still “young” and will never really “leave the building.”
#2 -  Mother died in 2005. 
#3 – I remarried in 2006.
#4 – Retirement for Marvin and me came in 2012.
#5 -  My children grew up.  Richard is in Charleston, SC, working as an urban arborist with Bartlett (!) Tree Service after 3 years at UTC.  David is moving to Delta State University as an assistant soccer coach, completing a master’s degree in Sports Management/Marketing.

#6 – July 22, 2013 –in April, my personal Hurricane Elvis powered into our life. Blowing in unexpectedly, a myxoma was discovered and I underwent heart surgery to remove it. Undetected, it had grown  to the size of a golf ball and had caused me to experience heart failure. This surgery was performed by Dr. Ed Garrett at Baptist Hospital in Memphis, on April 26, 2013. I did not recognize the Hurricane Warnings that had been issued by my body. We relied totally on God’s hand to navigate us through the whitecaps to safe harbor.

                Today as I reflect on the date, and the blessings I’ve experienced in these 10 years, I also note that change has been phenomenal. There have been some tropical storms, some marvelous gulf breezes, and the calm assurance of “sunny and mild.” Today, the 10 year Anniversary of Hurricane Elvis, I am feeling super healthy, grateful for the advances in heart surgery, and basking in the warm, tropical winds of LOVE that swirl gently through my life.