She may not have time to notice it, but today is the birthday of my niece Rene’ Marie (Fitzpatrick) Melchior.  After what’s been going on down her way, it’d be easy to overlook a mere birthday.

This is a satellite image of the storm that hit Huntsville, Alabama last week.  It’s 20 minutes away from where Rene and her husband Dan and family live in Fayetteville, Tennessee.  

According to Rene’, they were blown around a lot, but their home is intact. 

“We got a good walloping and had a lot of tree damage and power outages”, said Rene’.  “Tornados blew all over town but none of them touched down.  Huntsville and the surrounding areas got hit the hardest. Because Huntsville lost power and their stores are closed, they all come to our tiny town for help. It was a blessing that Huntsville was under a dusk-to-dawn curfew, so we did our shopping at night. The rest of the time our little town was practically inaccessible.”

“Our Walmart and Murphy’s gas station made national news for gas gouging but most of Fayetteville was very gracious all during the crisis.  There were stands set up all up and down the highway grilling food and giving it away to all our troubled neighbors.  Today, all but 1,000 people have electricity back.”

I think Rene and Dan live on a street named Paradise Drive.  No wonder they were spared. A mere tornado would probably take one look at the Melchior household and veer the other way.  The house is already teeming with whirlwind activity.

I don’t have a photo of the house, but this is one taken by satellite.  Residing within it are:

Rene, the Wonder Mom.
Dan, the Fearless Father.
Meghan, the Wonder Daughter.
Joshua, the Firstborn Son.
Dylan, the Band-player Son.
Ian, the Daredevil Son.
Josiah, the Kindergarten-Wannabe Son.
BaLee, the 4-year-old Twin Preschooler Daughter.
JoLee, another 4-year-old Twin Preschooler Daughter.
Braxton, the 7 year old home-schooled grandson.
Jericho, the 2-year-old enterprising rugrat grandson.
Jade, the 1-year-old granddaughter striving desperately to becoming a fully-qualified rugrat.
Shadow, an 11-year-old golden retriever.
Carmel, a 3-three old Shitzu dog.
Molly, a 1-year old dog of unknown origin.

In other words, if you need a place to stay, you might not want to go there.  With your luck, they might offer to share their home with you.

This might give you an idea of the kind of dream job Rene’ has.  In an email she sent me yesterday, she wrote: “Yes, tomorrow is my birthday.  I’m planning to be weedwacking the lawn after mowing today. I enjoy this. Then a trip to Huntsville’s Sam’s Club (wish me luck getting there), then Andrea’s graduation (Joshua’s finance), and mass at 5:30 pm.  Dan (as church deacon) does the homily this weekend so we do both masses for moral support. I try very hard to pay attention with the three little ones in the pew with me.”

“I guess I should go get some laundry done now since we need some necessities for tomorrow. At my house, if you’re tall enough to reach the controls on the washer and dryer, you do your own laundry. That means we are almost to the point of using a calendar to schedule a day to get your duds clean! Off I go! Have a great Mothers Day, everybody!”

Is she kidding?  She’s wishing US a happy mother’s day?  US?  Okay, all together now.  HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY TO A GOLD MEDAL HERO MOM IF THERE EVER WAS ONE!

And a Happy Birthday, too. Rene’.  Oh, and I see your email was sent at 10:20 pm.  Take the rest of the day off, dear.  You deserve it.

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