This is excerpted from a note I posted on Facebook with the same title. It’s about the events that followed a tornado hitting my ex-wife’s home in the early morning hours of April 28, 2011. Nothing in the world means more to me than my children, and after my separation and divorce from their mother, I sometimes questioned her decisions as a parent. I have always had difficulty with trusting someone else fully, especially if that someone has divorced me. I no longer have difficulty trusting her absolutely.
No one, not even I, could have done the kick-ass job that Tracy did in keeping our children safe through the tornado hitting their house and through the aftermath. I monitor weather watches and warnings in her county, primarily because of the kids, so I called within a minute of the tornado warning to ensure that they had not slept through the Wx radio alarm (as though my Imperial March ringtone would be louder…) but got no answer. After a little while on eggshells, I got a call from her reassuring me that the kids were safe, despite the tornado damage to their house. She got them to a safe place at a neighbor’s, gave me the neighbor’s phone number (throwing out the window the way we normally deal with each other) so that I could always reach the kids, and dove back in to helping her parents with pressing emergencies at their house. Despite everything that was going on, she kept me informed every time the kids changed location and made sure I had a means to reach them.
It amazes me that she finds herself in the position of being laid off as a teacher. If I were a school administrator, I wouldn’t merely retain her, I’d clone her, so that I could focus on problems other than school safety and learning, secure in the knowledge that my teachers had it covered. As a parent, I can only hope that my children end up with teachers like their mother for 12 years, so that they will be well-prepared for people like me as their university professors.
Electrons molded by thought 