Once again, my heart is aching for strangers in another part of the world. Today it’s for the people in Oklahoma affected by yesterday’s massive tornado.
I’m horrified to the core by the though of losing a child to a storm or not knowing if my child was dead or fighting for life underneath the rubble.
I can’t imagine walking around my neighborhood only to find mountains of debris. Apparently the devastation was so incredible that Oklahoma city officials were racing to print new street signs to help guide rescuers and residents through a suddenly unidentifiable landscape.
And the photos. Oh, the photos.
It seems like every week, sometimes more than once, we’re grieving something awful. Maybe it’s always been this way. I don’t know anymore.
But this latest tragedy / devastation / inconceivable happening hits me in a particularly strange way. Probably because I am absolutely terrified of tornadoes.
Since I have been a little kid, I’ve had a reoccurring dream of being trapped inside a house with a wicked black twister headed in my direction at full speed. (I’m no shrink or dream expert, but I know this is some lack-of-control dream.)
Growing up, I have many scary memories of sitting in the basement with my dad during to a tornado warning, listening for the all-clear message on the crackly radio. Once at Girl Scout camp during a tornado the sky turned a shade of green I will never forget.
Twice, while driving to Illinois I had to pull over and wait in fear and at the mercy of a funnel cloud that had touched down just ahead. There is nowhere to drive to. Nowhere to really "be safe." It’s an insane lesson in letting go; in accepting how little we control in this life.
And then there’s this: while reading about the Oklahoma tornado today, I learned that one of the most fatal tornadoes in United States history was the one that ripped through Joplin, Mo., two years ago on May 22, 2011. This also happens to be my birthday. And it happens to be tomorrow.
I have the urge to go to the scene of the tragedy and help – however I can. That’s not going to happen, and so I guess I will just sit here and blog.
Molly Snyder started writing and publishing her work at the age 10, when her community newspaper printed her poem, "The Unicorn.” Since then, she's expanded beyond the subject of mythical creatures and written in many different mediums but, nearest and dearest to her heart, thousands of articles for OnMilwaukee.
Molly is a regular contributor to FOX6 News and numerous radio stations as well as the co-host of "Dandelions: A Podcast For Women.” She's received five Milwaukee Press Club Awards, served as the Pfister Narrator and is the Wisconsin State Fair’s Celebrity Cream Puff Eating Champion of 2019.
