Wednesday, April 27, 2011

a personal note -- my sister is a hero

Rarely do I make posts about my personal life, but today calls for an exception to that rule.  I want everyone to know that my sister Martha is a hero. A tornado hit where she lives today while she was teaching. Martha teaches children with special needs, and was a bit worried about the severe weather heading her way. She had her iphone on while teaching, and asked the weather service to post an update as the weather was getting worse and she was getting very worried. When the service posted an update, she headed her students into one of the school's inner rooms -- even before the school officially sounded the alarm --- where they would be safe, and not ten minutes later, disaster struck. When she went back to her classroom afterwards, the place had been demolished, including ceiling tiles on the floor that could have been nasty projectiles. All the time in the inner room with her students, she managed to keep them calm through singing. Then she went home, only to find that much of her home had been destroyed.

My hat's off to this woman and I'm so proud to be her sister.

10 comments:

  1. She is a HERO! And your are rightfully proud of her!

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  2. Wow, your sister truly *is* a hero! Thanks so much for posting this. There's never a shortage of stories about bad things happening, so it's great to hear or read about people helping others, and in this case, planning ahead to prevent serious injuries or worse. I'm sorry to hear that your sister's home was severely damaged, but glad that she herself wasn't hurt. May her good deed be repaid many times over!

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  3. Wow! What a wonderful woman. I'm so sorry to hear what she has gone through and wish her all the best with getting things back to normal. I'm sure she is devastated by the damage, but I hope she can draw comfort from the fact she saved her class from injury. Send her my best wishes.

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  4. Thanks, everyone, for the comments! The second question I asked her was "do you have homeowner's insurance," and she does, so hopefully that will replace the house.

    She doesn't know what's going to happen where she works -- the part of the building she teaches in was just destroyed.

    She's coming here in July for a visit, so hopefully we won't have a hurricane while she's here!

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  5. Wow she is a hero! That's very sad about her home, I hope she hasn't lost too many precious things :-(

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  6. !! How terrifying -- but smart thinking on her part. My thoughts are with her and her family as they go through all this -- may the storms pass without further damage!

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  7. Wonderful, wonderful. And yet so sad she lost her house.

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  8. She is certainly a hero! How wonderful! I'm sorry about her house - I hope it all works out fine.

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  9. @Mummazappa, Audra, Nan and Aths:

    Thanks so much! She's still in a serious state of shock, even as of today. For a while she hadn't heard from several people she knows, including students' parents, and she just can't get over how bad it was.

    Everyone, thank you so much!

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  10. Hi, Nancy. I'm just catching up on reading and saw this. I am so sorry to hear about what happened to your sister. What an inspiration she must be to her students and their families. Is there any way we can help?

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Say what you will, but at least try to be nice about it.