Hurricane Irma and Rollaway Beds

Hurricane Irma and Rollaway Beds

• When you are an 85 year old single woman who:
• Still drives, and drives well
• Still plays some tennis
• Can work an iPad and a smart phone
• Remembers all of her grandchildren´s birthdays
• Isn’t afraid to spend a day at Universal Studios with said grandchildren
• Can maneuver Walmart Supercenter like a boss
• Has lived through 5 hurricanes in a 15 year time frame, with another on the way…

Hurricane Irma of 2017 was due to hit the Vero Beach area September 10^th. Volunteer evacuations were underway, and of course she decided to stay put. “But,” she said, “I am going over to the neighbor’s house which is one of those block houses, so I’ll be safe. And I can get back to my house right after the hurricane passes… I bought a rollaway bed in case I need to stay there overnight.”

She bought a rollaway bed.  She may be a strong 85 year old, but she is actually not a large person. She’s quite small. How the heck did she load a rollaway bed box into her Toyota Corolla? …Then she got it home and unloaded it…unless  she had ordered it on Amazon using her iPad, which would be no less impressive. 

She thought that she would simply cut open the box and Voilà!—Rollaway bed all ready for a cozy sleepover at the neighbor's. Nope. It came in pieces. Dozens of pieces. Dozens of little screws and washers along with those instructions that have been translated into English by the foreign manufacturer.

She wanted to start to cry. She wanted to put it all back in the box and return it. She walked away from the mess of screws, frame, mattress & box, and sat down to watch some TV with her lunch, to see how close Hurricane Irma was getting to shore. An hour later she re-entered the main room of her house and looked again at the challenge before her. “I have to do this,” she said to herself. “No matter how long it takes me.” She went to find her tool kit.

Five hours later, as the pre-hurricane sunset was bouncing its brilliant spectrum of oranges, pinks, and reds against the borders of the clouds, she had a completely functional, ready-to-use rollaway bed. She would roll it next door to her neighbor’s house the next day.

The next day, however, Irma took a turn westward and the Indian River area suffered only the outer effects of the cyclone. There was no need to spend the night away from her home, although she did weather the hours of the storm at her neighbor’s block fortress. Her own place had some wind damage, but nothing too terrible.

What she had to say about the whole ordeal after it was over was this: “It took me five hours to put that stupid thing together, but I didn’t give up! Hurricane Irma showed me that I had lost confidence. Living alone, I can go a couple of days without speaking aloud to someone else. I convince myself that I’m old, or I just assume that certain tasks are meant for younger people. I forgot that I can actually DO things. I’m so proud of my rollaway bed, even though I’ll never use it. Do you want it?”

Hell ya, I do.