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Let me tell you a story...

It has not happened often in our neck of the woods;
I can remember only one time we've had snow on Easter.
The Ohio River had flooded earlier 
that March of 1964 
causing many disruptions in our lives.  
Our town had a floodwall which protected 
its low-lying residences from damage;
but my aging grandmother had to evacuate her area
and come to our home ten miles north. 
This flood was second only (in her lifetime)
to the disastrous cost and destruction
triggered by a 1937 deluge. 
Her visit was haunted by the memory of
severe damage to their home and business 
twenty-seven years earlier 
during the worst flood ever on the Ohio.  
She worried the whole time - re-telling stories 
of how folks had taken sick with scarlet fever and pneumonia.
How they had to stay with higher-ground relatives
and the back-breaking clean-up after the water receded.
They had just bought a new square grand piano.
She told of how they put ropes under the 
legs and hoisted up it to the ceiling to 
protect it from the water damage.
This was the first time I ever remember 
her spending any time away from her home.  
She and my grandpa ran a small grocery store
and made their mark in the community
by also selling homemade ice cream.  
Just prior to the era of swirling soft-serve,
Tom's Ice Cream was known for miles around.

When grandma finally returned to her home, 
the damage was more than her eighty-five years could bear.
My German-immigrant  granny died on Good Friday
and was buried on the following Sunday, March 29, 1964.
I remember well, we had a light dusting of snow that Easter,
a kind of heavenly eulogy 
marking her entrance
to eternity.


April 22, 2022

Sponsor	Constance La France
Contest Name	Form N - Narrative - New Poems 
I chose a family theme

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