Aurora, Colorado; Happily Returned
By Valerie J Laidlaw
We moved my brother, towards the end of December, in seventy-three,
To Colorado, where rental places, we found to be scarce,
In accepting, a young couple, with a baby.
He’d joined the Air Force, finishing basic training, first,
As college placed second, to their need for clothing, shelter, hunger, and thirst.
On the way back, the weather grew wicked and fierce, blowing downward through the plains.
A blizzard dumped snow, and the strong wind carved massive drifts between the valleys, hills, and drains.
Herds of cattles huddled frozen together against ridges for shelter.
We crept onward slowly, driving blind, in the vicious storm’s swelter.
Just in time, we approached a little town,
As the patrolmen signaled us, informing us that the road ahead was closed down.
The motels had no vacancies left to be found.
As some kind strangers led us around.
A church welcomed us, and opened its doors,
So we gracously slept, in its aisles, on the floor.
As the coarse weather subsided, and the stained glass windows glowed,
A humble caravan of cars, like gypsies, crept out, crossing a desert of snow.
The strong shoveled paths for our tires on the road,
One vehicle crossed at a time, with its load.
As we crossed further on, I sat up front with my dad,
And, I experienced one of the scariest experiences of my life, that I have ever had.
The road followed the carved path approaching a high grade,
A sharp, left turn towards the edge, steering with the wheel my dad made,
Followed by a sharp hairpin turn to the right in the grove the men’s shovels had laid.
Any small slip or falter, we would’ve plunged over the edge of the cliff, into a ravine.
In that “slow motion” moment, my entire, young life flashed past, in that scene.
We returned up the middle of the next two states to our own,
My life, it continued, and through faith, I am now safe, and fully grown,
This story reminds me, whenever I need a lift,
Each day, and each moment, in life is a gift.
grmaval 