The Day the World Turned Upside Down
On April 24, 2010, The Carson family was unaware of just how upside down their world was going to become. Baker, 13 autistic son, had been home from school for a few days. I was exhausted and in need of a nap. Anyone who has an autistic child can relate. Sleep is just something that is not very neccessary to them. I had not seen a television or heard a radio station since his arrival home. My 15 year old daughter was sleeping through the normal Disney videos at top volume. Dad had come home and Baker was anxious to get away from the women and go four wheeler riding with his Daddy. Daddy was off that day.
After the four wheeler ride, Baker refused to leave the four wheeler. He was flapping and humming loudly. When he gets real upset, he bangs his wrists together, repeatedly. He was headed for a meltdown. Sam, his dad, drove the four wheeler to the shed and convinced Baker to walk with him. Baker cut loose and ran back to it. The wind was getting high and Sam decided the best thing would be to drive Baker and the Four wheeler in front of the house. I wondered whether to leave or not, since it seemed like a meltdown was on the rise. I did and turned back around.
I pulled up just in time to see my daughter, who had come outside to help her frustrated father, get Baker in the house. I, being too tired to notice the winds and sky looking unusual, opened the car door and out of no where, the wind slammed it shut! Only for me to be trapped inside the car watching the house, with my children in it, being ripped apart, raised and slammed, moved and broken. (It was a mobile home that we got after losing our family home) 100 yr old trees were whirling like toothpicks before my eyes. I was demanding in screaming prayer, protection of my children!
For a fleeting moment, the moment that I knew the house was blowing away, I felt miserable guilt for not being inside with them. My car was lifted a few times, but I was too busy begging God to protect my babies. The last time it lifted, I prepared to be blown away too. I was praying that God would take me instead of them. That fast, it was over. The sun was out and birds were singing. I lifted my head in a haze, only to see that NOTHING but rubble was left! I could not register this! They were there two minutes ago! I got out of my car, screaming in demand of my family to answer. What seemed like eternity (two minutes) I searched and screamed.
I finally heard Sam speak and the refrigerator lift off the surface of what once was a house. Underneath, were he and Baker! It had stopped them from being sucked up, somehow. My daughter! Out of the deadly silence I heard a faint voice, “Mom? I am alright. I am not hurt, but I am trapped.” That is all a mother on super charge adrenenline needed to hear. I don’t know how but the cabinets, walls, and shelves that lay on top of the voice, flew off and I held my daughter in my arms, kissing her and crying all at the same time. Upon examining the surroundings, it was just gone.
We had survived, but that was it other than a few walls and the broken remains of memories. Baker’s foot was cut to the bone and bleeding badly. Already, like automatically, we knew we were stranded. Trees piled 7 feet high on top of the other for as far as you could see. I had paper towels in my car! I never have paper towels in my car, but I did that day. Thank goodness.
Everything around us was drenched in black rain, including us. Baker was calm, oddly. He sat down and agreed to let me doctor his foot. It was going to need stitches. I dug around what used to be the kitchen and found a bottle of liquid band aid. We prepared him and told him that it was going to hurt but we had to do it. The child never flinched. I had a renewed respect for the pain that autism creates for him daily. I fell to my knees, literally, thanking God for His divine mercy!
It took six hours to cut us out. Oddly, the only contact we had was FaceBook. We could not call or text, but facebook was faithful! Through FaceBook, we were able to connect with autistic advocates that could get us help and reach Baker’s school. We were forced to institutionalize due to financial exhaustion, already. I refuse to call it home. It is school! Baker comes home ten days a month. Baker gathered his most precious possessions, various Mickey Mouse stuffed characters (and friends) and hugged them tightly, crying and looking at what he knew to be his only means of leaving school, in a heap, everywhere. We reassured him that he would always have a home to come home to! Always! No matter what we have to do, there will ALWAYS be “home!”
Well, here I am…doing what I have to do…humbling myself before mankind. Please, help our family give Baker his safe home, back. The community is already trained to hop on four wheelers in a moments notice, when Baker “runs.” He is loved and known by our community. His father and I are divorced but come together for our children. It is our ministry! Not many understand, but many are touched. Our love for our children will always stand.
After the tornado, we did find Baker’s Blackberry. Yay! He You-Tubed Pinnochio over and over…. “When You Wish Upon A Star” as well as the song he plays every time we pick him up, “There are no strings on me”. Baker plays Jiminy Cricket’s, “When You Wish Upon A Star” like a prayer. I so want him to believe that “dreams do come true.” Thank you for your time.