Last week was Spring Break, for my crew. Luckily, we had the opportunity to spend the week with my Mom. While we were there, I came across a very old, torn, used up book. At first I thought it was something she had bought at Savers. (Her favorite store.) After further investigation, I realized it was a journal from my Great-Great Grandmother, Elizabeth Ann Sherman-Miller.
I throughly read through the book. From front cover to back. I have picked a journal entry, I would like to share with you. Let’s back up just a little bit, and I’ll give you a short sum up of Elizabeth aka GGG. She was born in 1822 in New York. She married Christopher Miller in 1842. He was enlisted into the US Army at the time of this journal entry. GGG was a seamstress, and would do odd jobs to help generate income. So, as I type this story, imagine yourself at the young age of 22. By yourself.
Oct. 19, 1844
Yesterday was total carnage. The past few days, we have had dreadful, eerie winds out of the east. It has been so frigid, I have been busy just trying to keep warm. When Christopher left, he didn’t plan he would be gone but for a few months. I have tried my best to prepare for the arctic winter, however, I wasn’t planning on it arriving so soon. At any rate, yesterday was a saga like no other. Approximately, at 12AM I woke up to the sound of pummeling rain hitting my window. When I went to get out of my bed, there lay about 7″ of water on the floor. Having lived in the basement of Mr. H. Gates, I immediately ran upstairs to get help. To my surprise, Mr. Gates and his family were already awake. When I looked outside of the front door, the water level was drawing in closer and closer to the street level of Mr. Gates home. Our next door neighbor, Jacob Bantar came running to the door. He stated, that his house had just been let go from it’s foundation. Without any warning, the waters kept coming up, and up. Mr. Gates got his wife, two boys, and one girl, along with myself to the roof. Within minutes, the water was to the roof. At that moment, the loudest snap was heard. The water had just taken Mr. Gates home off its foundation. We hurdled up into a small circle, and prayed for the safety of myself and Mr. Gates family. We knew that if the Lord wanted us to survive, we would allow that. It was the longest hours after that, that I will never forget. This mornings newspaper headline read..”29 Dead, More To Come.” I am very lucky that Mr. Gates is a church going man. I am also very lucky to have survived such an ordeal. I know I have a calling waiting for me here, in this life.
Signed,
Elizabeth
It is a reminder like this, we all need to think about in our daily lives. Don’t take anything for granted. With all of today’s modern technology, we would have know this storm was coming. We would have been prepared. For a brief moment, think what you would have done if you were in Elizabeth’s shoes. Would you have given up hope, or stayed strong?
