Neighbors helping neighbors

This is a reader response to our Web query for readers’ ice storm stories. The writer, Holly Emerson, is a sister of Rich Aitken, the man whose picture appears on Page 1. He has jugs of water slung over his shoulder and medicine he is carrying to a sick neighbor.

It was a dark and stormy night. No, not really. It was a cold, bitter day and ice was snapping branches and small trees behind my home. Every few minutes you could hear the silence broken by the loud crack of another tree. No electricity, no phones, “no anything” as my daughter used to say. With two little ones, I decided that when I could get out, I was going to my brother and sister-in-law’s farm to wait for the power, as they had a generator and a wood stove. My husband stayed home one night, the pipes were drained the next day and he soon joined the rest of us.

After arriving at the farm, it was obvious this was not a “regular storm” and that things were going to take a long while to get back to normal. We were without power for 11 days. It was only because my brother had a dairy farm that we were “higher” on CMP’s list. In that 11 days we did what you always hear happens in small communities: We helped each other and anyone who needed what we could spare.

My brother and sister-in-law’s home was FULL. There were 10 extras in their home: four children ages 5 months to 5 years and six adults. I left for work each morning starting on the Monday after the storm. But during the day, a lot of things got done. Cows were milked, fed and tended as usual, meals were prepared, clothes were washed, folded and stacked in the living room for us to pack away, and the kids were tended and spoiled by the adults on hand. In addition to the “regular” chores, the guys were keeping the neighbors’ houses warm and our unoccupied homes from freezing, taking the town’s generator from home to home in the evening to warm homes and let folks have some lights for an hour or so. Neighbors stopped by to see if there was anything we needed a hand with, to grab a quick shower, or just fill us in on the progress of cleaning up the “mess.”

My brother and I rode to Northport to get fuel the second day. I couldn’t believe it. How could something so destructive and life-altering be so beautiful? He and I rode around a lot in those first days, just looking and being amazed at what Mother Nature could throw our way. He also delivered medicine to a neighbor, ill and stuck in her home far from the road. It was a photo of him in the paper that forever will be etched into our minds of the Ice Storm, not that he would let us forget, mind you. “Hey, guess what’s in the paper again?” he would call me, laughing.

Family, friends and neighbors really did mean something then. And now, 10 years later, I think that we would do just fine, our small town with neighbors, friends and family. Not that we weren’t thrilled to see those power company folks roll up the road. We love each other and took care of each other … But really, 11 days was enough!

I got the phone call this morning. “Guess who’s in the paper AGAIN?” he said, laughing.

Thanks, BDN, for reminding us.

Holly Emerson, Monroe