Not all the heroes wear uniforms

I was supposed to be working in Minot this week but the trip was cancelled. Seems they’re having some flooding. At least two of my good friends there have lost their homes and the agency they work for is surrounded by sandbags.

We’re not talking about the neat single stacks of plump, dry bags of buff canvas that movie makers use to surround movie London during the movie blitz. The whole agency, rehab center and all, is surrounded by a twelve foot emergency dike of plastic bags full of whatever was handy.  They weren’t filled by professionals guided by a set design. They were filled by terrified volunteers who’d had way too little sleep with no immediate prospect of getting any more.

I’ve never been to Jodi or Ron’s houses. We’re the kind of work friends who share rides across the state to check on the services at Air Force bases and then adjourn to our individual hotel rooms to meet again in the morning for the complimentary continental breakfast. We’re comfortable with each other and we’ve shared funny stories about our families without ever having met each others’ families.

Their houses are pretty much gone and they’re saying things like “At least, we’re all safe.” Which is what you say when you are truly thankful for your children’s safety but also mourning the loss of photographs and wedding china. It’s what you say when you’ve grown up in Minot and you’ve faced plenty of awful winters and drought summers and it’s written in your bones that the way to survive is to refuse not to give in.

So, they’re camping at the less-damaged homes of friends and relatives and spending their days minding generators and pumps at the agency so that the people with disabilities they serve will still have a place to go during the day although they themselves don’t have a permanent place to go every evening.

My friends are hurting tonight. These are really good people who spend their lives in the service of other people. They’ll do whatever it takes to be able to carry on helping. And I wish I could be there and useful.