There are times when you are faced with a situation that requires you to do what you have to do.  The recent snowstorm, Nemo, that hit New England, was one of those times for me.  I arrived in Providence, RI on Thursday, February 7th,  the day before the storm was due to hit, knowing full well what was coming our way.  I have endured many a snowstorm living in Illinois and New Hampshire, but this one was coming at the worst possible time.  My daughter was to have a baby shower on  Saturday, February 9th.   If the weather prediction was correct , her shower wouldn’t be on Saturday.  We had to wait and see. . . .

Well, Mother Nature brought Nemo to us on Friday as predicted, slowly at first, but by late afternoon, the blizzard was swirling all round us.  The windows in her old home on the  hill were rattling wildly, and the street lights were blinking on and off all evening long.  There was even some lightening, a rare occurrence.  We were ready with flashlights and candles nearby, but fortunately, we never had to use them.   Looking out the snow covered windows, it was obvious that the shoveling we had done in the afternoon had been a waste of time, so we decided to wait until morning to dig ourselves out.  No sweet dreams for us that night, and  no baby shower on Saturday either.  So it goes . . . .

By morning, the wind and snowfall had died down.  Thank heaven!  We were faced with a ton of shoveling that seemed impossible to accomplish.  My daughter was the first one up.  I knew that because I saw her teacup in the living room after I arose.  When I discovered she wasn’t in the house, I knew exactly where to find her,  OUTSIDE SHOVELING!  Immediately, I got my snow shoveling clothes on and went out to help.  Had her husband been there, he would not have allowed my daughter to shovel, but I knew what she was thinking, “The job has to get done.  You do what you have to do.”  I’m afraid that she comes by that view quite naturally.  (In fact,I recall shoveling while pregnant with her.)  The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, as they say.

My daughter had shoveled a pathway down from her porch and two other sets of cement stairs to the street level.  When I found her, she was at the bottom of the stairs, waist high in snow, trying to figure out the best way to dig out her tenants parking area and the snow that enveloped her car.  What a nightmare!  We decided to start from the street and shovel in toward the parking space and her car.  Unfortunately, there was little place to put the snow except to either heap it onto an existing snow pile already three feet high or walk it down the street.  We looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders, and started in.

We shoveled three different times during the day:  in the morning, after lunch, and in the late afternoon for around two hours straight each time, finishing at dusk.  The street lights were on as we put the finishing touches to our clearing (See above photo.).  Fortunately, my daughter’s mother-in-law was there to shovel too, and a very nice neighbor gave us an hour of his day as well.  We owe him big time!

This was one of those times when you do what you have to do no matter how tired you are or how much you don’t want to do it.  You find out that you have more strength, perseverance, and determination than you thought you had.  It was that old survival instinct that lives within us that kept us going.  In this case, we were the ones the task fell upon.  If we didn’t do it, it wouldn’t get done.  Secondly, we wanted my daughter to have her baby shower the next day, so it had to be done so that we could get to Massachusetts for the party.  No ifs, ands, or buts about it.  It had to be done, by the three of us.  After all, expecting a baby and the preparations for its arrival is a very special time.  Having a baby shower with family and friends is today’s way of supporting the mother-to-be.  It’s a right of passage of sorts.  The baby shower had to happen and it did!  We did what had to do to make it happen . . . .

How about you?  Have you found yourself in a similar circumstance?  Did you do what you had to do because you had too?  Congratulations to you and to us!

Peaceful blessings,

Sandy