Jesse S McKeehan, Sandra George McKeehan, Jillian McKeehan Newcomer 1979
. . . it was the first really nice day of spring after a hard winter. I put our 16 month old baby in her backpack, put it on my back and we walked all morning drinking in the fresh air and sunshine. On the way home we stopped in at a shop which had the radio playing, to hear we had been drinking in more than clean air.
My husband worked on the eastern side of Harrisburg and I wanted him to come home immediately, but what man did that?
We stayed put, did not leave, and all during the following days we listened to a man on the radio with his soothing reassuring voice along with the calming music he played.
People began calling asking us why we had not left yet, the meltdown was imminent! That is not what was being reported around here. We just joked that we were glowing green, and so were our milk and chickens. We lived our lives with the TV and radio news on all the time just in case though.
We had bags packed and kept gas in the cars.
We devised meeting points, escape routes, and various scenarios with family about who would pick up whom at school and when, if we have to leave fast. We had bags packed and kept gas in the cars.
My husband died of colon cancer in 2010, he had just turned 60, and my daughter just had her thyroid removed due to cancer. The physician said since there was no explanation for her having it, they attributed it to TMI. (When people her age have that type of cancer for no apparent reason like trauma or familial history, it is given over to TMI.)
She is recovering well and the prognosis is good, but I have to wonder about my husband . . .
Sandy