Pride for Iowa
... cross posted from our sister site, Chicago Moms Blog.
The news coverage came on CNN as a “Severe Weather” update. We saw that Iowa City was flooding. It was still raining. We called my extended family for the crisis-check. You know, the call that says: “I’m concerned, are you OK?” Everyone was “fine” and we wished them well, offered them to come to stay with us in Chicago if need be, and said we would help in anyway we could.
It wasn’t until this weekend, when talking to my Iowa born-and-raised cousin, that my heart filled with sadness and pride for the entire state. “Susie lost her whole house, her son’s room is floating…we finished grabbing boards and sand bags and she said: ‘Let’s go help Tim, he got it bad’”. Seriously? My cousin explained his shock that she didn’t consider her own desperate situation “bad”. He was calling to help raise money for his brother who had lost EVERYTHING. “What do you mean everything, Anthony? Furniture? Basement?” I asked. “Everything, as in he was out of town, and now has NOTHING.” He clarified. Yikes.
