Life Changing Event

It seems like a lifetime ago that we were awakened abruptly at 6 a.m. on February 9, 1971 by a full minute of a shaking earth. Anyone who lived in the northern end of the San Fernando Valley that day will, no doubt, remember. At the time it was a matter of making sure the girls were alright and getting out of the house. Earl had left for work almost an hour earlier and there was no way to contact him so we were on our own along with the neighbors.

When he got to work in North Long Beach he was told what happened and immediately grabbed two 5 gallon bottles of water and headed home. Five hours later he came driving in.

It was a time of reassessing our lives. It became one of the watermarks of our life. When you lose a lot of material possessions, no matter how treasured they are, you realize how easily you can live without them and just treasure each other and the things that survived. We were more fortunate than people who experience fires and floods because in retrospect our losses were minimal compared to theirs, but I'm sure the feeling would be the same.

So, in our family today has always been Earthquake Day.

Treasure your family and friends. These gifts from God are the most precious.