Personal blog of christian
writer & fallible mom
Katy McKenna Raymond
in Kansas City, Missouri
Katy is represented by
Rachelle Gardner at
WordServe Literary
Read more Katy at
LateBoomer.net
Recent Posts
- Soul Train
- Live Out Your Dream And Discard The Box
- Tears In A Bottle
- From The Young Mom I Once Was, To You
- I Can’t Help Falling
- What A Difference Ten Years Makes
- The Next Best Thing To Robert Redford
- The Memory Keeper’s Daughter
- Where Have All The Years Gone
- Fun With Kiki Cullen
- Stuck On Mom
- Ten Years Later, Our Girls From Northern Ireland Remembered
- The Thrift of Grief
- Job Security
- The Party’s Over
Syndicate
E me at katy @ ngenius.com
Oh, The Weather Outside Is Frightful. But A Lockdown’s So Delightful!
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this, but my darling daughter is teaching severely disabled 7-year-olds in a public school in the very extremely urban core of Kansas City.
She left here this morning a bit worried about the weather. We live 45 minutes from her school, and on Wednesday nights, she’s supposed to go even farther north to take classes toward her Master’s in special ed. But our favorite meteorologist, Carrie’s fiance Marc, warned her that tonight would not be a good night to get caught outside. She didn’t know if she should attempt to go to class or not, since then the drive home (late at night) would be 1.5 hours in good weather.
So she packed a bag in case she ended up in a hotel somewhere, or at her brother’s house in town. But then she forgot her wallet containing her debit card and all her ID. And her cell phone wouldn’t hold a charge. And she was out of gas, never a plan in Kansas City in the winter. But I digress.
The ice storm began in earnest around noon—many hours earlier than most of the local TV weather forecasters predicted. They’d all said the rush hour would be completely over before the ice made things unbearable. NOT.
So at 3:20, I called her phone and used one of the last bits of juice she had. “Where are you? Katie Horner on Channel 5 says it’s nasty out there.”
I could hear little children in the background, so I knew she was still at school. “Um…I can’t leave yet. We have a bit of a situation here. I’ll try to call you back, but my phone is dyyyyyiiiiinnnnnngggggggg….........”
“Carrie, are you OK?”
“I’m oooookkkkkkaaaaaayyyyyyyyy…....”
Fade to black.
So I waited. And waited. And waited. She finally called Marc to say she was headed to his Mom’s—a much shorter drive which still took her an hour—and he called us. As she pulled up to their house, she called me once more.
“Did Marc tell you about the situation at school?”
“No. What happened?” I’d been so worried about the roads, I’d forgotten the school.
“All the teachers were outside loading the children into the busses. It was pouring sleet, of course. There are these two fifth grade girls who hate each other and constantly fight on the bus. So their parents showed up on the school grounds—with posses of their friends!—and started a big brawl.”
“In an ice storm? Carrie! Is everyone OK?”
“The mother of one of the fifth graders turned to the other mother and said, ‘Do you want me to pull my gun out of my purse right now?’ and then someone shouted to get the kids back in the school and into the gym. We went on immediate lockdown and within minutes the place was swarming with cops.”
“Carrie!”
“It’s over, Mom. Really. I’m here now. I’m at Marc’s.”
Ice pellets—frozen bits of nature’s unleashed anger—beat relentlessly against my bedroom window as I prayed.
Dear Lord, between You and Marc, please take care of our Care Bear.
Oh my word! I’m glad to hear she’s okay, but that sure would be skeery
Posted by Tess on 11/29/06 at 10:15 PM
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