Winter with those dark, gray skies, howling-bone chilling winds, heavy-wet and drifting snow were miserable for me. One particular Saturday when the forecast was for heavy snow starting that evening, my husband decided to go into town to get some provisions and be back before the bad weather hit, or so he thought. He got in the car and off he went; however, Mother Nature had other plans. It started getting very dark quickly and soon a heavy, wet snow began to come down, it was such heavy snow fall that the snow drifts came to the middle of the back windows. My husband, his name was Bill, had been gone for more than three hours, the temperature had dropped and I was worried that something may have happened to him; I was pregnant with my last child and had been ordered to bed rest. Finally some five hours after Bill had left, there was a knock on the door and when our eldest son opened it, there stood my husband with icicles literally hanging off his nose, eyebrows and beard, he dropped the bags and collapsed on the couch beside me. Under those miserable weather conditions, the car died on him and the wretched looking man had to walk about a mile to get home, and that became our last winter in Michigan. Everything was not so bad during the winter months though, sometimes my husband’s boss would invite us to his home to have apple cider and other warm beverages and to ride on snowmobiles. On one occasion, it was my turn for a ride and this very tall, broad man was driving and I, of course, was the passenger. We had been riding for about an hour when the man asked me if I was cold, I said no. I didn’t feel the wind because this man was so big, and me being economy size, the man’s size shield me from the wind so I didn’t feel cold; however, he was freezing!
After what seemed an eternity, the dark, cold days of winter became less cold and started giving way to the crisp, brighter days of spring when the air was filled with the aroma of different fruit blossoms, roses and other flowers. I enjoyed spring time when we’ll go into the pine forest and hunt for morel mushroom and white asparagus by the railroad tracks. I would cook those mushrooms with butter and what an awesome aroma, so delicious! Very soon there came the long, humid, warmer days of summer. Those long days were a novelty to me because in my country of Guatemala is 6 p.m. and is as if someone closes the shades and becomes dark, while in Michigan it was 10 p.m. and is bright day light. During some of those lazy, warm summer days, we would go camping and we’ll let the kids play in the lake. Some weekends, we would visit friends and grill, or just drive around the country roads.
The previous year we had made a trip and visited a town in the Gulf Coast of Texas, we had been there four days when there was an order to evacuate because a hurricane had entered the gulf. Upon arriving home, we learned that the hurricane had caused devastation in the town where we had been, phew!
After that miserable winter when we decided to move south, my baby was four months old when we packed and took a vacation before settling down in Texas.
Our choice for the vacation was to take our children to go see Niagara Falls. Everything was going well until we were driving through Pennsylvania. My husband was a very cautious driver and opted to drive the side roads so that we could see the country side of the places we were going through. We had a station wagon, remember that those had side sitting in the back? Well, the two older girls and two boys were riding there and all was well until my husband noticed in the rear view mirror that a state patrol car was chasing us with lights flashing…. I was scared and my husband told me that there was nothing to be afraid about because we had not been going fast….. well, the officer came asked for license and insurance, then the first question he asked was: “Are all these children yours” to which we both answered yes; then he asked the older boys if we were their parents and they said yes. At that point the officer asked Bill to come to the back of the vehicle to open the tail gate, my husband did as he was asked and to his surprise one of the kids had a piece of cardboard where was written “HELP, I’M BEING KIDNAPED” the sign had been put on the glass to be seen and read by whoever was behind us!!! And this before we had reached our destination. Needless to say, this child was moved to the middle of the back seat, directly within arm’s reach.
When we finally arrived first to Buffalo, we spent the night and the next day we headed to Niagara Falls, those spectacular, impressive falls – what a sight! We visited the American side first then we crossed to the Canadian side where with me having some small kids, had the bright idea of putting dog leashes on my kiddos; of course, people gave me dirty looks but I didn’t care, I had my kids safe with me. We spent two days in the area and then went back home to get our belongings and head south to the place we had chosen to become our new home.