I was working at a Catholic Church as Parish Secretary at the time of TMI. It was my first real job. I was still living at home with my family.

“Don’t worry. It will be fine.”

We heard the news on Friday and were glued to the TV or radio for the rest of the day. I had tickets to the Fulton in Lancaster that evening to see “Our Town.” It was a pretty slim house.

On Saturday, we continued to monitor the TV and radio. We had a relative who worked on developing the atomic bomb. We were in contact with him and he said, “Don’t worry. It will be fine.” Another relative who worked for PP&L said there was no danger. Then on Sunday morning we got a concerning call from a family member who had just been to early Mass. The priest gave General Absolution! My father, a very calm and faith-filled man became extremely concerned. General Absolution is only given in grave circumstances such as in war time and when large numbers of people are in danger of death without the benefit of Confession and Absolution. My father made the decision, we were evacuating!

My father made the decision, we were evacuating!

We went to Mass, packed up ourselves and my father’s brother and 2 sisters and headed to the shore in a two car caravan! The shore? It was a place to get away, I guess.

What I find most interesting is this, when I was looking on line to be sure that memory served correctly about the circumstances for General Absolution, I found the following quote on “Catholic Straight Answers”: “An example when the granting of general absolution was appropriate occurred on March 29, 1979 when the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania was in danger of exploding. If the reactor had exploded, large quantities of radioactive material would have been released into the environment, jeopardizing the lives of countless citizens. Bishop of Harrisburg… granted general absolution to the faithful since every individual person would not have had the chance to go to private confession.”

Wow! TMI made history on many different levels.

Jean