This post is not my normal subject matter, but I think worth sharing anyway.
I was lucky enough to be on vacation for the past week in Northern Michigan. It was beautiful with people having fun, taking some time off, enjoying life. Unfortunately, everyone can't indulge themselves like that.
While out of town (and without my computer), I received an email from a highschool classmate of mine last Thursday. My friend has been an insurance broker in Joplin for decades. I thought the email is worth sharing. We all have to realize how lucky we are, and do whatever we can to support the victims of the tornadoes in Joplin and earlier in May, Bridgeton, Missouri.
When I read this email outloud to Barbara, I teared up:
"We are tired . . . lots and lots of claims, for people without a home, no autos, no pets, and sometimes no spouse, or no kids... I worked until 12:30 AM Sunday evening processing claims. I started on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday at 7:00 AM and we worked all day, answering the phones and setting up claims.
People are coming into my office in rags, dirty, with no home, no cars, and some of them are missing a spouse, a child, or their pets. All of the people are nice, some of them say, "there are a lot of people worse off them me", and when we ask, "how?" they say, "we still have each other, we didn't lose our kids, we saved our cats, etc". The spirit of the folks is amazing. Everyone is helping everyone else, people from all over the country are here delivering water, food, and labor.
750 people still missing, 2000 homes destroyed, and 8,000 more not liveable, about 18,000 people homeless, no power, no water, no gas, no cell phone service, but everyone's attitude is positive. Thousands of volunteers from all over the country are helping sort through the debris, trucks and more trucks are arriving with supplies, we don't have any place to store it all!
The real story is the people, and their spirt, not the tornado."
Let's all remember it's all about the people, and do what we can every day to help our fellow "people". We're all in this together and need each other. If you can't volunteer time, money, supplies or labor to any of the tornado or flood victims, at least take a moment and say a prayer for them.
You might also pray that it never happens to you!