Attended my nephew's graduation this weekend. It was postponed in may due to the tornadoes. It's the first time I've been to Tuscaloosa since the big tornadoes. Surprisingly little progress in the area that was hardest hit. There has been some scraping down of lots with destroyed buildings. And some of the corporate ones such as CVS and Regions Bank have big corporate trailers sitting in front of their damaged facilities with "yes, we're open" (in the trailers).
With tornadoes it's always surprising how devastating damage can be in one spot and... just across the street everything is fine.
The campus itself is fine. It was the area near the mall that was heavily damaged.
So the graduation ceremony was large because it was both the kids that should've graduated in May plus the ones who were to graduate now. They gave nine (NINE!) degrees posthumously. The parents or siblings walked in the deceased child's place. I honestly don't know how the parents made it through that ceremony. It would've been so hard. What should have been a happy day -- surrounded by people for whom it is a happy day -- they receive the diploma of a child who is no longer here. How devastating.
Anyway, my nephew was happy. He introduced us to his girlfriend and we took him out to dinner.
Sunday was then my being mostly useless. .. and avoiding the news.
Geez. I'm just going to turn the news off for a while.
With tornadoes it's always surprising how devastating damage can be in one spot and... just across the street everything is fine.
The campus itself is fine. It was the area near the mall that was heavily damaged.
So the graduation ceremony was large because it was both the kids that should've graduated in May plus the ones who were to graduate now. They gave nine (NINE!) degrees posthumously. The parents or siblings walked in the deceased child's place. I honestly don't know how the parents made it through that ceremony. It would've been so hard. What should have been a happy day -- surrounded by people for whom it is a happy day -- they receive the diploma of a child who is no longer here. How devastating.
Anyway, my nephew was happy. He introduced us to his girlfriend and we took him out to dinner.
Sunday was then my being mostly useless. .. and avoiding the news.
Geez. I'm just going to turn the news off for a while.