Splendor of Fire

Splendor of Fire by debgrant

On November 9, 1965 in the Grant house at about 5 pm, the power went out. My father, 2 brothers, a sister, and me. Mother was at work in a factory night shift. We didn’t know why the power went out. All sources of information were cut off except my brother had a battery-operated ham radio. We learned after several hours that the power failure was widespread over several northeast states and parts of Canada. We still didn’t know why. The ham radio crackled with lots of conspiracy theories, but we didn’t care about conspiracy theories. Somehow we knew the truth would be revealed after the lights came back on. Until then, the Grants did something we rarely did at the time, we spent the evening sitting around the kitchen table by candlelight playing cards, telling family stories, and just talking. There was a lot of betrayal and dysfunction in my family before and after but on that night of a disaster, in the splendor of candlelight, we trusted each other.

When disasters hit, the memory of suffering, the fear of future reoccurring pain, the ferocity of human cruelty loom large. But whose presence in whatever form will you remember as having given you joy, hope, courage in these disaster-filled days? Do they know that when these days are a memory that they will shine in your heart with the splendor of fire? Maybe this day, Valentine’s Day is a good day to tell them.

Peace,

Deb