Marcie "Mom" Glanzer's Column
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
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I have decided that it’s time to replace my “dog troubles”
column, and thought perhaps a true story of courage and faith in the face of
adversity might be in order. This tale takes place in 1984, the day before
Mother’s Day, in fact. It was a bright, sunny Saturday morning and I buckled
little baby Ryan into his car seat and set out on what was supposed to be a fun
“girl’s” outing with my good friend, Denene Miles, who agreed to accompany me to
Watertown. I stopped in Raymond and picked up her and her baby daughter,
Deneige, and off we went.
Our first stop was the Watertown mall where we were anxious to see the s
oap
opera star, Jack Abbott in person. We each had a camera along to capture this
momentous occasion. (For those of you who watch “The Young and the Restless”,
this isn’t the Jack Abbott that is on now. It was a guy named Terry Lester who
had the role many years ago.) Anyway, after snapping a few photos of him, it
was off to the rummage sales. We drove all over town, snatching up bargains
left and right and kind of lost track of time. It was nearly 6:00 and we still
had to get groceries. When we came out of Hy-Vee, the sky looked very creepy.
Dark and cloudy and you could just feel that there was something coming. We
jumped in the car and headed west towards Henry on highway 212, listening to the
weather reports on the radio which warned of possible tornadoes in the area.
Denene and I got to talking about how we thought it would be really cool to see
a tornado, not especially to be in one, but just to see one from a distance.
All this talk and the stormy sky made both of us jumpy and we were beginning to
watch a bank of clouds off to the west, the direction we were heading. As we
got closer we both wondered if that could possibly be a tornado, but it almost ½
mile wide, too wide for a tornado, or so we thought. By now we were getting
scared and decided to roll our windows down as we drove through the small town
of Henry. We figured if there really was a tornado approaching they would have
their sirens blowing. There were no sirens, but a lot of people were scurrying
around. The Catholic Church which sits right on the east edge of town on the
highway, was preparing to have Saturday night services, and lots of people were
standing outside watching the weather.
While we were still in town, a bunch of trees blocked the view to the west, so
we proceeded out of town and when we got a clear view, we were scared
shitless!! This was definitely a tornado and it was heading right towards us!!
We momentarily considered driving fast enough to get past the point on the
highway where it would cross, but it was obviously moving faster than we were,
so I turned around and we headed back into town. We pulled up outside the
church and I rolled the window down and asked a man if that was a tornado. He
said, "yes it is, get those kids inside”…well, he didn’t have to tell us twice!
We grabbed our kids and ran to the church where they had us line up against the
west wall of the basement…Denene and I were on the far end and there happened to
be a church pew there so we shoved Ryan and Deneige under it and held on.
All the Catholics were saying this “Hail Mary” thing which I didn’t know, but
quickly caught on to. The tornado hit and was over with in a few minutes,
nobody in the church was hurt, but there were broken windows, the doors were
torn open and much destruction throughout the town. Houses were blown over,
trees uprooted etc…our car had been pelted by gravel which ruined the
windshield, but thank God our rummage sale finds were safe! We had our cameras
along, thanks to Jack Abbott, so we drove around taking pictures.
On the way out of town we saw that the first farm you come to west of town was
totally demolished. We both said that that’s where we surely would have stopped
if we hadn’t had the sense to turn around. Nobody had been home there, and we
surely would have perished. I think we both decided that it wasn’t that great
to see a tornado close up. I dropped Denene off at her car and head
ed home to a
nervous Richard. “Where in the hell have you been?” he demanded. “Don’t you
know there are tornado warnings out?” “Yeah, I know…we were in it”. Then, Dick
fell to the floor sobbing, praising God for sparing his beautiful wife and young
son, promising never to forsake them. Yeah, right… Actually, he ran outside to
see how much damage had been done to the car.
All in all, it was an exciting experience, probably the most memorable event of
my life next to delivering a baby on the way to the hospital which will have to
be another column. To this day, I’m scared of storms, especially at night when
they could strike while everyone’s sleeping. Ryan was too little to remember
that fateful day, but I have told the story so many times, he thinks he can
recall the events. With spring storm season approaching, Dick will have many
sleepless nights ahead as I make him get up and check the weather, grab him when
thunder cracks, and cower under the covers while the wind howls. And if I ever
mention that it would be really cool to see a hurricane up close, slap me.
Ryan's Note: Believe it or not, I claim this experience as my earliest
memory. I have very vague memories of being in that church under the pew.