Thunderstorms

When I was a young girl, about 5 years old, I used to be scared of thunderstorms, lighting, mostly thunder and the boom a few minutes after you see the lightning. I would run and hide in a closet or under my blankets until the storm went away. I couldn't sleep during the storms, I was always afraid that the lightning would go on our house and start a fire. It is possible for that to happen.

My mom told me a story that helped me cope with my fears. She said that God and the angels were bowling up in the sky. They were actually having fun with each other, competing against each other in a tournament. The lightning, she said, was the bowling ball being thrown down the lane. The sound you hear is when the bowling ball hits all of the pins. The clap of the thunder was them cheering on each other to get a strike. I believed her. So I asked her, "when does the storm go away?". Mom says that when you start to hear the sound of the thunder go away, it means that they are finishing up their game of bowling and moving on to another place to share the joy with others. If you count to 10, she says, then the storm is going away. If you only reach 1-5, then that is how long it will take for the bowling ball to reach the end and then you will hear the clap and boom. She told me that it is a light show, entertainment. We had to unplug all electronics and shut off all the lights in the house. We weren't allowed to go out unless the storm was going to pass, so that was our entertainment when there was a storm. Our doggie, Sandy was so scared of the storms, he hid under beds or we wrapped him up in a blanket to make him feel safe. As time went on, I felt more at ease with storms, especially ones that had a lot of lightning across the skies. Sometimes there was different colors in the lightning as well.

A few years ago, about 5 years ago, in 2015, there were a series of major storms with high gusts of wind 100 km hr. It was a time for tornadoes, severe hail storms for us at that time. I was going to a late meeting about an hour away. I took my children with me in my small Chevy S-10 truck. That was the scariest time of my life. There was a storm coming, everyone says. Everyone was going to the basement for shelter. I didn't think too much about it, so I said, okay, I will head home to Lestock, SK. then. As I was heading on the grid road, the winds were so strong, it was rocking the truck. I thought to myself, ok, well, I better drive a little faster then. Within 10 minutes, I had to stop, there was so much rain and debris in front of me, I couldn't see hardly at all!! I said to myself, ok, I will wait awhile and see if the storm slows down. It didn't, it got worse and worse. I was getting scared because I had my children with me as well and they were getting scared too!! I prayed for someone or something to take me and my children out of here! My prayers were answered 5 minutes later. A semi truck came down the road and I could see his lights! I raced my little truck after him and followed him closely. He must have seen me get lost in the hail and slowed down enough for me to catch up to him again. We were driving in 3 feet of water in the hail storm! Finally after a grueling 25 miles, we were safe and free from the storm. We all stopped to get out and look back where we came from, it was a black mass about 5 miles across. It was a class 5 tornado!! I thank that semi driver and am forever grateful to him that he/she helped us out, whoever he/she is, he saved our lives that day. The creator answered my prayers that day.

Storms, I love, tornado's, not so much. I am forever grateful for surviving a tornado and wanted to share my story with others. Thank you.