THE LAST 60 HOURS have been an exercise in powerlessness. With my Buddhist-ish leanings and gardener’s soul, it’s something I’ve spent time examining. But when your sister (and only blood relative) is literally powerless, and you cannot help her…it brings the lesson to a new level.
Like hundreds of thousands of Northeast residents, Marion remains without power, with no return in sight. Barely 60 miles away (and somehow spared) I remain frantic about her frozen house and all the details.
Sending over my generator didn’t help (a long drama of technical-difficulties) and there isn’t the right set of needed parts available at the moment region-wide, nor any magician in sight. I am powerless over her powerlessness.
And so the storm really got me, too, after all: I can’t do anything, but I can’t seem to stop thinking about it, either. Sisters.
The bond of siblings is an obvious one, but it never fails to startle me, anyhow, how preoccupying it is, how magnetic the pull, particularly in times of trouble.
Which bring me to the postscript: Another 25 percent of the TSP sisterhood, sister-friend Paige Smith Orloff, remains powerless 60 hours after the storm, too, perhaps 15 miles north of me and 40 or so from Marion. Having Rube Goldberg’d her internet and gotten her generator working after a few mis-starts herself, she wrote about another twist on the gotta help my sister in hard times story.
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So sorry to hear your sis is w/o power still. I’m sure she’s in good hands with her local sisters and staying warm.
I hope the ordeal is over by now. No fun sitting around in the dark wondering when the pipes will burst. Will be calling.
Here I am, back with power, about to get a foot and a half of snow and typing as fast as I can to get this out before the power goes out again, asking those who read this to notice the “sending over my generator,” quote in my sister’s post above. In writing (see my other posts; I teach memoir) we call this characterization. Don’t tell me how tall someone is or the color of her eyes, tell me what she sent her sister in an ice storm if you want me to know your character. Now you know my sister. She sent a generator. By the way, there was no gift card.