SURVIVING FLORENCE
After living in a flood zone for over 12 years, my husband and I made the difficult decision to evacuate when faced with the impending arrival of Hurricane Florence. We had ridden out Irene and Matthew, but the warning for Florence was different. I could physically feel the fear and my family kept chanting: GO! Go now! Leave! The county had issued a mandatory evacuation which only means that you are on your own if you need help. As we prepared to leave, I moved the 15 scrapbooks I had made for my "grand"son for his graduation from college, the three scrapbooks I made of the graduation trips I had given to my two nieces and nephew; photos of my late son, brother and sister to the room over the garage. I looked around at this room that seemed to be the Museum of my Life: a wall of my "grand"son's achievements; photos of his high school and college graduation; the painting my niece did of Democrats for Hillary and Obama during the 2008 primary campaig