On the evening of July 4th, my sister Nicole began hearing fireworks outside of our mother’s house in Palm Coast, Florida, and suggested we go out into the driveway to see if we could see any. As we stood there, we observed lightning arcing through the tops of a thunderstorm on the horizon. I remarked that in some places around the country, the July 4th celebration had to be canceled because of rain, but that it had never happened in my hometown of Ada.

When I got home this week, I discovered that it had happened here. (Sidebar question: is that a true example of irony?)

Nicole ended up being a total hero, by the way, and not just because she was thrust into it by circumstance. She really took point when it came to dealing with everything, and she never faltered.