The following is an excerpt from my book, EMP Series Book 1: Grid Down. (link below)
Pulling into Miss Mary's driveway we could see smoke coming from her chimney. That was a good sign. She didn’t hear us until we knocked loudly on her door. She was happy to see us and invited us in. Pastor hugged her and told her how happy he was to see that she was ok. She invited us to sit and made us a light lunch. She was well stocked with veggies, and fruits and sauces she had canned throughout the season, and had a hand pump on her old well to get water. She said it kept her young. Pastor unveiled his plan for her to return to the church with us and said she should gather what she needed so we could start back as soon as possible. She just smiled and sat back in her rocking chair. “Oh Michael Francis” she said. “I have no intentions of going anywhere”. She was about the only one I ever heard call Pastor by his given name. It’s just a sign of respect for his authority to address him as Pastor and everybody always did. Even her late husband who along with Miss Mary were the first members of our church when Pastor came out from rural Ohio and started it. They were both many years his senior and when Miss Mary called him by his given name it was clear she didn’t have an ounce of disrespect in her for him. Pastor told her he was concerned for her safety with her being out here all alone. She told him to take a good look around. A picture of her husband, Slim in his army uniform was on the mantle. She told us that that was the only time she had been alone. When slim was off fighting in Korea. She said he was there with her everywhere she looked. His rocking chair was still positioned off to the side and facing the large stone fireplace. His old truck sat outside. She pointed out to the yard where there was a large stump by the driveway. She told us that tree had fallen in the blizzard of 78 and blocked the driveway. She was eight months pregnant with their youngest child and slim went out and cut it up in the middle of the storm as she watched him from the window. He couldn’t take the chance of her going into labor and him not being able to get the truck out of the driveway. She told us that her oldest child, William sat at that very dining room table with them both before he went off to Viet Nam. That was the last time they spent with him alive. He was killed 16 months later. She asked Pastor to try to imagine the number of Christmases that her family spent together in this living room. The laughter, the tears. Her whole life was inside these walls. This fireplace her and Slim built together. They went with the tractor out onto the land and harvested every rock one by one, brought them back and maneuvered them into place. She was by her husbands side through every step of their homes construction. "No", she said. She was not leaving there. “I have lived my life with no regrets, and I shall die with no regrets as well if it be the Lords will”. Just as Pastor was taking it all in a voice shouted out from the driveway,” Miss Mary, you ok in there”? ,,,,,,,,,,,