Joan

Warsaw, Indiana

I was a pediatric nurse at Rhode Island Hospital at the time and was home in Riverside that day with my two-year-old son and six-month-old daughter. My husband was a sales rep for an orthopedic company making a call at Woonsocket Hospital the morning of the blizzard. I remember telling him to get home as soon as possible since it looked so bad out. He drove as far as he could on 95 and then had to leave the car on the highway and walk to Rhode Island Hospital. One of the orthopedic residents let him sleep in his room since the roads were closed and he couldn't get home.

The next day he walked from the hospital across the bridge and up Veterans Memorial Parkway in his suit and dress shoes to our home. The nurses at the hospital stayed over since no one could travel and they sent rescue vehicles to get other health care workers in. Fortunately, I was a breast feeding mom at the time and wasn't required to go back to work until the emergency was over.

I do remember the time fondly to some degree since it's always fun to be stuck in the house together during a storm, and there's a certain kind of camaraderie with neighbors you only see in tough times. I do remember an older couple dying in their car while stuck on Broad Street coming into Providence, though.

We're currently living in Indiana, my husband still works for the same orthopedic company, and I am currently working as the director of a college student health center. Outside the blizzard of 2007 rages on.

Received via email, February 13, 2007