Thirty Years Ago on the Beach - #10 - Survivors
How could this be? Why? No one wanted to hear this devasting information. This had to be addressed as soon as the weather allowed.
It was at this moment we were no longer tourists, we became survivors. Our first duty was to help this woman find her child.
The winds had calmed enough for us to feel secure leaving the confines of the cramped closet.
There was no way that we could adequately feel what the cook was going through, missing her only child. We did our best to provide comfort and talked more with the cook to gain whatever insight we could into what needed to be done to assist her.
Her house was in Green Island, which was about 20 minutes north of Negril. Her neighbors watched her daughter when she was working, so she was probably with one of them. Probably. 'Probably' is a terrible thing to have to rely on. It was all she had.
The cook had no idea if the neighbors would have known the hurricane was coming. The 'probably' was sounding less probable. If the first half of the storm was any measure, there were still hours left of these wild winds. It was already into the evening, nothing would be able to be done until morning. The only thing to do was try to take her mind off this tragic situation.
The cook asked what we would like for dinner. We put a stop to that at once. We would prepare the food tonight. There is no more guest/staff concept, we are all in this together.
Dinner options were discussed by candle light and pasta was agreed upon. We still had the LP gas available for cooking and the cook had stored water earlier. The tap water had stopped before the eye hit and the groundsman had to lock off the main and turn on the tank water after the storm ended.
Dinner preparation gave us a sense of normalcy from what had so far been a harrowing experience.
