I had one child and saved everything. I remember his first teddy bear, his first outfit and so on.
My intentions were to pass on everything to his children. Well, that changed on August 29, 2017. In a matter of hours, 30 years of memories were lost when our storage room flooded during HURRICANE HARVEY. We were the lucky ones because people lost their homes, their businesses, and some, their lives.
What we witnessed was sad and incredible at the same time. We witnessed people from everywhere coming to help. We witnessed people that didn't judge one another based on their economic background, color of their skin or the cloths they wore. We witnessed people clothing one another, feeding one another and comforting one another.
I even came to grips with the fact that the things that I had been holding on too were gone. For me, I realize I could have done the same thing with just a few items. I had been paying for a storage room and toting these things around as if it were a shrine to my son.
I remember once going to an estate sale and seeing all these amazing antiques, that I prized, being sold after a parent had passed away. I was devastated. As we were going through the items that had been destroyed by the flood waters of HURRICANE HARVEY I asked my husband and son if these items could be salvaged. He looked at me as if I was crazy. Then my husband, while trying to be strong, told me these were only things that could be replaced. Then he found our wedding photos submerged in the black goo and started to tear up. We've learned a lot about ourselves over the last few months that has brought us all closer together. As a family we are planning on making more memories.
Now, looking back, that's pretty gross. Every now and then you can walk in downtown Houston and you will get a whiff of the aftermath that HURRICANE HARVEY left us. Houston is rebuilding. Houston is STRONG.
Houston has great people, great places to visit and great restaurants!