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RSSGlad to be alive
by The Rev. Barbara Cawthorne Crafton
1/21/2007
Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10
Psalm 19
1 Corinthians 12:12-31a
Luke 4:14-21
"If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it." -- I Corinthians 12:26
What is it like to survive an event like Hurricane Katrina? I'd just be glad to be alive! we say to ourselves as our hearts go out to the children involved and we try to imagine their experience, and "glad to be alive" would certainly be one feeling a person would have. But there are others. Survival is anything but simple.
Susie and her three daughters found that their response was much more complicated than just "glad to be alive." They moved from place to place to place, as she struggled to keep three young girls safe from the chaos immediately following the disaster. Finally, they made it to Susie's mother in Minnesota.
Safe at last,we think. But again there was more to it than just "safe at last." The girls were traumatized by all that had happened. They awoke screaming from dreadful nightmares. They couldn't eat. They were too frightened to go to school. Susie decided to home school them, but she herself was shaken and afraid, and it didn't go as well as she had hoped. She had a hard time sleeping at night. In the daytime, tears often overtook her without warning. Where had her life gone?
With the help of Katrina Aid Today, an interfaith consortium of which Episcopal Relief and Development is a member, Susie received counseling and employment help. KAT sent her girls to Camp Noah, a program specifically designed to help children who have survived a major flood.
The fear that had paralyzed the family began to dissipate under the wise care of people who knew just how to help. The girls began to think of the future again, as well as of the frightening months just past. They began to talk of going back to school, and soon they were back, and excited to be there.
At last, Katrina is taking its place in the past for Susie and her children. They survived it. They made it. At last, "glad to be alive" begins to make some sense to them. Glad to be alive. Glad to have each other. And glad to have found the help they so desperately needed.
