I remember clearly that ice storm of 1994. I was l...

2010-08-14T09:34:13.292-05:00

I remember clearly that ice storm of 1994. I was living in Texas then but had come back to my hometown of Iuka, Mississippi (about 90 minutes east of Memphis) to visit my grandmother.

My grandmother liked to sleep in the living room of her house because it had the biggest window for her to look out. So I slept on the other sofa in the living room while I was there. The ice storm moved in during the night and my grandmother's beloved police scanner kept getting busier. (My grandmother and her sisters and their police scanners would make great fodder for a future blog post by me!)

We awoke fully in the morning to a winter wonderland of ice and falling trees. I stood on the back porch and listened to what sounded like gunshots in the woods as trees and limbs broke off from the weight of the ice. I ended up staying more than a week with my grandmother to help her out since she had no electricity. But she did have propane so we were warm and could cook. So we cooked and ate and shared with neighbors all of the contents of my grandmother's freezer.

That was the last time I saw my grandmother. She died in July 1994. So the ice storm of that year is extra special to me because it was the last bit of time I got to spend with one of the people I loved most in this world.

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I remember clearly that ice storm of 1994. I was l...