A year ago, the power went out in our house and stayed out for five days during the now-infamous ice storm that pummelled central and eastern parts of the U.S. and Canada in December 2013.
My three-year-old thought it was great fun hanging bedsheets over the door frames while we cocooned ourselves in our living room, lit the fire, and opened up the pull-out couch.
I sent him on a scavenger hunt looking for flashlights while my MacGyver of a husband scrambled eggs and made toast on the barbecue. Our newborn was oblivious to what was going on around him or that it was “baby’s first Christmas”.
As we nestled into our cozy little cocoon, the world outside was falling, literally, around us. Limb by frozen limb came crashing down. A car was hit: then another car and another. Half a tree came down. Then an entire tree came down. And then another.
We were blocked in to the east and west. We were in awe watching power lines sparking like firecrackers, and wondered how long this could go on for.
Once the sky had stopped falling, we were restless for coffee and fresh air so we bundled up, put on our bike helmets (strapped the baby into a carrier) and headed for Yonge Street. As we walked passed fallen tree after fallen tree, it started to sink in that the Christmas party we were throwing might need to be cancelled. The smugness I had been feeling about being organized for Christmas disappeared.
Back at home I took stock of diapers, the contents of the fridge and cupboards, and the supply of firewood. We had no running water, so my husband was melting pot after pot of snow on the barbecue to keep my fluids up to feed our baby.
My biggest concern was personal hygiene. I needed a shower desperately (as one does when one is breastfeeding and being habitually spit up on) and the toilet situation was getting grim. But we were sure the power would come back on at any moment.
That night we all (including the dog) slept together in the living room on the pull-out sofa. Between toddler feet in my face, frequent wake-ups from our newborn and the increasing cold and the worry that was starting to creep in, I didn’t get much sleep.
By noon the next day, we were all desperate for hot baths and somewhere to go but we were stuck, due to blocked roads. MacGyver left us to find a way out. Our phones were dead, so I sat in the living room playing with our boys waiting for my husband’s return for what seemed like forever.
At last my husband returned, with a plan that would get us out. I packed in a rush, grabbing all the diapers we had, blankies, and toothbrushes.
Little did we know, we wouldn’t return for another seven months.
Vagabond Family
As we camped out at family members’ homes, letters to Santa were written to redirect his delivery path.
Five days passed before the power came back on and when it did, it started raining. In our living room.
A small pipe had frozen solid and burst. The burst pipe was on the top floor and everything below it was lost: floors, ceilings, walls, furnishings, Christmas gifts, electronics, the computer with all our family photos, including nearly all the photos of my baby in his earliest months of life. Everything.
My husband was calm and said to me, “We got through your skin cancer so we can get through this.”
When we called our insurance agent, we were his 300th claim in five days. He had no Christmas.
Our insurance company moved us into a two-bedroom condo (thankfully, in our neighbourhood) with a pool overlooking the bright lights of Toys R Us. Our beloved golden retriever had to be boarded.
Our-three-year old was in heaven. In his mind we were on vacation. Elevator rides, dips in the pool and dance parties in the studio helped shake the sillies out while winter dragged on. Weekly play dates to visit our goldie helped us all. After two months in the condo and the reconstruction yet to start on our house; we were moved to a duplex and reunited with our dog.
We were told we’d be home by the end of March. Our house stood untouched until the end of May.
Knowing and accepting there was nothing we could do, McGyver and I made the best of it. We took advantage of the digital channels on TV and watched a lot of television. We hired a regular babysitter and went out a lot.
We knew our reactions to the situation would affect our boys. And I knew I couldn’t make the contractors show up or force them to work any faster. So we adopted our three-year-old’s attitude and treated our new digs like we were on vacation.
There were some upsides. The duplex we stayed in for five months was new and came with weekly cleaning. And in the spring, a landscaper! Adjusting expectations was key. I wanted to be back in our house for our son’s fourth birthday in March and it didn’t happen. To ease the disappointment, we went big and rented out a party venue where he had a blast.
Coming Home
We finally moved home at the beginning of July, which was awesome (though we’re still working with the contractor on the deficiency list). Our house, for the most part, is shiny and new and I’ve been busy replacing the lost furniture piece by piece.
And we’ve made improvements: instead of just replacing my son’s waterlogged bed; we got him bunk beds; something he’d wanted for a while. As for the lost photographs, I e-mailed family and friends so our youngest’s baby book is a collaborative piece of work; which I really like.
Our newborn may not have spent his first Christmas at home but he did spend his first birthday at home and we went big too: house-warming big.
Since the ice storm hit our house a year ago, my husband and I have been through three moves and a job change while our eldest started all-day junior kindergarten and our youngest has learnt to crawl, walk, run, eat, and talk.
One evening while reminiscing over the past year, we laughed at all the changes we’ve been through and how we’ve really raised the bar on what matters. Knowing that it takes a special relationship to weather such a storm, on our most recent anniversary we renewed our wedding vows with our two boys. Having each other under one roof (where ever that roof is) is all that matters to us.
IMAGE: LARS_O_MATIC/FLICKR CC
