Sarah and her daughter Sadie quilt square, pictured above, represents their experience during the storm. A transcript of their story, narrated by Sarah, explores the meaning stitched into the broken heart and rushing water.
Sarah and her daughter Sadie quilt square, pictured above, represents their experience during the storm. A transcript of their story, narrated by Sarah, explores the meaning stitched into the broken heart and rushing water.
"After the storm, we were stuck at our house. We live in the Foscoe area just above the Watauga River. Luckily our property and our home was fine, but the road was completely washed out, so we couldn't leave.
Well, we could get out at all for several days, and then we could only get out on foot for a while . So our square is showing the moment when my sister-in-law, who lives in Deep Gap was able to finally get to us and park on the other side of the river, like right off of 105, and we were able to walk the girls out. She picked them up and took them to their house for the foreseeable future. We didn't know how long it would be.
So my husband and I stayed at our home because we wanted to take care of the house, and also we have a bunch of animals, and we couldn't leave animals. So we camped in the house for almost two weeks, and the girls were with my sister-in-law. So this was kind of the moment we are representing in the quilt, when she came and kind of rescued them from where we were sort of stuck there.
And it was a real bittersweet moment for us because we were obviously delighted that the girls were going to be safe, and they were going to be cared for and loved by family. But it was also really hard for us to watch them go after going through the storm and just recognizing how important family is. We wanted our family to be together, but it was definitely the most logical thing for them to leave at that point.
It was hard, and it was all very emotionally charged because my mother-in-law lives in Avery County and she was by herself, and we didn't hear from her for over two days after the storm because she couldn't get a call out. Yeah, so that was when my husband and my brother-in-law had gone up to Avery County.
They couldn't get to her house. They had to park and walk in, walk the last mile or something to get to her. But then they were able to pick her up and bring her back, and so she went with my sister-in-law and all the kids to their house in Deep Gap.
That just felt like a haven for everyone after going through everything they've been through. So it was good for them because then they were with their cousins, and they had a good time, and they were safe, and everything was good. But it was hard for us to be separated in that moment and feel just really uncertain about everything."