I barely slept last night because of the gale force winds rattling the window. It sounded like a tornado and there were several moments when I clutched Shannon’s hand, convinced I would be covered in shattered glass from the window blowing in.

I actually speak from experience: when I was 7, I was in a tornado! I was born in Woodstock, Ontario, as we already know, but we’d moved away by the time I was a year old. My god parents were still there and in August 1979, my parents dropped my sister and I off at their house for the weekend. Now that I think about it, I wonder what my parents were up to? Doesn’t matter, I suppose, but there we were, playing outside on a hot summer day. Then the sky turned brown and we all just stood around gazing at it. This is my godparent’s kids, Laurie and Aiden, my sister and me. Then Auntie Linda was yelling at us, get in the house, in her crazy Yorkshire accent. We could tell something was about to happen, something big, and we all raced inside to watch out the dining room window. I remember seeing a funnel in the distance, and that was when Linda told us to all get into the basement, which we did. All the kids and Linda hid behind a La-Z-Boy chair, screaming, for what seemed like an hour (and I think even later, describing it to my parents, I told them a longer time than it actually was) while Uncle Brian raced around and tried to close all the windows. Open them? I don’t remember which. Anyway, crash, bang, boom, blow, and it was over. Their house wasn’t destroyed, but a lot of the windows were smashed and the big front bay window, in the master bedroom, was blown in, frame and all, with bricks all hanging about. Then we explored the neighbourhood to see the damage. It was scary and exciting.

That night we slept at someone else’s house, one not damaged in the storm. I don’t know who’s. Then the following night we all packed up and went home to our house, in Niagara-On-The-Lake. That was when I realized our house did not have a basement and I worried about more tornadoes coming, dreamed about being blown away forever for many years.

Last night’s storm brought me back to that place of terror and I am really zonked now. Of course, today’s my first day back to work in two weeks, so that will be fun…