Over six months ago, I scheduled a flight to return home to Ohio. My little Sister’s youngest child- my Nephew, was getting married in October 2022. It would be a chance to enjoy a lot of my family for this happy occasion and my favorite time of year. Fall colors would start to glow amidst the deep blue skies with cooler temperatures. I would be home wearing sweaters and jeans and that was exciting to me! I immediately started planning what I was going to wear. My big Sis said “OMG! It’s six months from now and you’re already planning your outfits!” We laughed on the phone, but that is how excited I was!!

I got sick with Covid at the end of April and it was not pleasant. It took a full week for my health to round the bend, but after 10 days, I was confident I was going to kick Covid’s butt and live to see my family once more. This might sound a bit melodramatic to some, but this was serious. My immune system is not good, and it was my Mother’s lungs that failed her in death, so it’s like a bad case of PTSD for me. If I can’t breathe, well, you get the idea. Panic sets in. But I survived.

May 13th (yes, it happened to be a Friday!) I took a bad fall on the concrete floor of our garage when a rug snatched my shoe and tackled me to the floor. I was still gripping the screwdriver in my right hand when my chin and nose became the last body parts to make contact with the floor, but my chest had already taken the full impact. Luckily, 4 weeks later, my bruised ribs were fine, but I learned how a nanosecond can make the difference between life and death or serious injury. I was very lucky that the hand with the screwdriver never made contact with my chest or my face. I also fell perfectly aligned between the car, the riding lawnmower and the tool box- a remarkable feat, I might add.

June 29th was another extensive surgery in my mouth to extract 3 teeth and repair my receding gums for a couple of future implants. Anyone that knows me will know that surgery in my mouth is a very high anxiety situation, and this was number 2 of 3 total surgeries. To increase my anxiety, I had an infection set in on day 4 after surgery. Just when things should have been getting better – they got much worse! Excessive swelling and pain increased my recovery time, but after another ten days of strong antibiotics, I was in pretty good shape. I would be making the trip home with less teeth, but I was ready for a much needed vacation with my family after a stinking hot and not-so-fun summer.

My outfits were planned for the rehearsal dinner and the wedding day and everything before and after! Life was good and my trip was just around the corner. I could hardly wait!

But then…

Saturday September 21st, a prediction of a disturbance below Cuba was given a 70% probability to become a tropical storm or hurricane on our local evening news. I don’t know what it was about this forecast, but I had a bad feeling in my gut on that very night that this could be a bad one and the first to affect Florida during this mild hurricane season. I literally was watching history in the making and somehow I knew it. My husband told me not to worry about it, but my gut was right. I had every reason to be worried.

A couple of days later on September 23rd, the disturbance was named Tropical Storm Ian and strengthened into a hurricane by the 26th. My bad feeling about this hurricane had slowly become my scary reality. By Tuesday September 29th, we were directly in the bullseye of what was to become a historic and deadly hurricane. It was predicted to make landfall in Tampa as a strong Cat 4 and move up the center of the state wreaking havoc on everything in it’s path. We were prepared with water, non perishable food, batteries and prepared our house and pool. We chose not to live on the coast, but slowpoke Ian was about to dump enough rain to cause rivers and lakes to overflow their banks and create inland flooding.

I was scared and nervous Nelly had to do all she could to keep it all together. I called the airline to see if I could change my flight and get out of Florida ahead of the storm, but fleeing vacationers filled every single seat on every flight out. I had no choice but to ride out Ian and hope for the best. We had people calling and texting us to see if we were prepared.

I saved 15 screen shots of the predicted cone, but only one matters now. We went from the bullseye in the north central area to the far left (West) of the cone. Now it was Orlando and Daytona Beach in the path after Ft. Myers, Captiva/Sanibel and Pine Island (St. James City) took the deadly surge of landfall. I don’t need to tell anyone how horrible this hurricane proved to be, as you’ve all seen the tragic results play out on TV. It was indeed a historic hurricane and several people we know were seriously impacted by the damage.

We dodged the bullet, but I was scheduled to fly out of Daytona on Saturday October 1st. The airport and surrounding area suffered from surge and flooding (St. Johns- for one) as predicted and was closed. I felt that all hope was lost in flying out to see my family. My heart felt another punch from the blows of Ian.

CNN was reporting Tampa/St. Pete, Bradenton/Sarasota, Orlando, Ft. Myers, Jacksonville and Daytona airports were all closed. We heard that Daytona wasn’t to re-open until approximately 10/5, yet my flight had not been cancelled by the airline yet. I called twice (one hour wait times with no option of a call back) to try and confirm my flight. I was advised to call DAB to find out directly from the airport if they would be operational on October 1st, but no answer on any phones by anyone. I was now prepared for more bad news. I would have cried, but I felt too guilty and selfish to do so after lives were lost and properties destroyed. “Chin up!” I would say to myself. “We survived unscathed and that’s enough.”

But I just wanted to get the hell out of Florida. I wanted to go home!

I called my Sisters to let them know it was looking pretty grim for me to get out and that I would most likely be caught up in the thousands of folks trying to get in or out of Florida after so many flight delays and cancellations. This was just too much for me to bare at this point. The stress of this hurricane and seeing and hearing the devastation all around us was gut wrenching and I could not stand the thought that I was about to be robbed of seeing my family when I felt I needed them most. It had been 3 years since I last visited my family where I grew up and I was trying to hang on to that one little bit of joy. It seamed the tiny thread was about to break!

I packed my suitcase. I prepared a carry-on bag. I showered and I was ready to go.

Finally, I received a message from the airlines after midnight! They advised me that I could reschedule my flight with no penalties, due to the inconveniences of the hurricane, however, my flight was NOT cancelled. Only the first flight out before mine was cancelled and the airport would reopen for commercial flights at 9am on one October.

We arrived safely in Daytona as we drove past some flooding by the St. Johns river areas and alongside the roads. We passed hundreds of electric utility trucks in the parking areas of Daytona Speedway. My flight was late departing, but shortly after noon, I was on the first flight out of DAB headed for my Atlanta connection, then landed safely at my final destination after flying through the remnants of Ian in the skies over Pittsburgh. I was only a little late arriving and my Sisters both greeted me at the baggage claim!

I have searched for the right words to tell you what it felt like to see them both there with great big smiles and hugging me tightly. I can not explain it. Relief and calm, yet excited and exhilarating. I was home for the next 10 days and nothing could be better in that moment.

In the following days, I got to spend time in my younger Sister’s new home. We went to an Oktoberfest, shopped at my favorite boutique, ate at my favorite restaurants, watched movies, laughed and drank wine. I was reunited with Nieces, Nephews, extended family and friends at the rehearsal dinner. The wedding was absolutely wonderful and I danced with everyone and enjoyed visits with so many people. I got to enjoy a huge event the day after called Christmas in the Woods with my big Sister’s family, and resumed visiting at an open house gathering at the Bride & Groom’s house that evening. Did I mention it was an Italian wedding? If you’re Italian- you know how much food and cookies were there! I have never seen more traditional wedding cookies in my entire life! I have also tasted more homemade cookies over the past week than I have in my entire life. LOL!! No joke!

One of my all time favorite things besides the wedding was spending time in a local park with my Photographer Niece being our tour guide. Me and my big Sis were photographed in this place hundreds of times as children, and then as teenagers with boyfriends, and finally as adults with our own children. The memories here are endless and the beauty of the Fall Season is bountiful with backdrops of the Lakes, the Falls, Lanterman’s Mill (est. 1845), the Lilly Pond, and of course, the Fellows Riverside Gardens.

We wrapped up my trip with a second siblings dinner and my tears were hard to hold back as I thanked them for hosting me in both of their beautiful homes and carting my ass around all over town to all of my favorite places (got to visit Whitehouse Farms too and checked a bag with two large bottles of my favorite sauce- Sweet Bourbon Glaze. They made it home safely!) I also hand carried home a teapot that I bought for my Mom when I visited Leavenworth, WA when I was 16 years old. Later in life, my younger Sister and her family would visit that same Bavarian Village where I bought this treasured souvenir for my Mom.

It was a wonderful trip and oh how sweet the memories! Ian could not break our family bond and is in the rearview mirror for me now, but so many people in my state will be dealing with the damage for years to come.

In the end, my final word is “Family.” If you survive tragic events, it is family that will come to your rescue. It is a bond like no other on earth. We grow up together, we live together, we laugh, love, and sometimes disgust each other. But we are bonded by flesh and blood till the end. We accept each other’s faults and shortcomings with forgiveness and celebrate the strengths and triumphs with kind hearts. We learn that time heals and separation can be both good and bad. But we will always hear the words of our Mother, Father and Grandmother; “In the end, all we have in this life is each other…”