| Please Help a Family In Need in
the Wake of Oklahoma Tornadoes Lance & Debbie Pierce Need Our Help! How you can help | An update about Debbie's son and the family dogs May 6, 1999 - This morning I recived an e-mail from Susan McElroy, author of "Animals as Guides for the Soul" Link. She passed along the following message from John Hayes about Lance & Debbie Pierce and their family's tragic loss during the Oklahoma Toranodes. We are asking for your help. Dee Beaugez, Publisher E-Mail Memo to Susan from: John Haynes TO: E-llusions / MoonShadow Press family RE: Lance & Debbie's tornadic adventures In the Wake of Oklahoma Tornadoes - I just spent the entire day with Lance, Debbie, and a small group of friends, sorting through the rubble of their former home. I don't see how anyone crawled out of that pile alive, much less relatively unscathed. When Lance finally tells his story, you'll be amazed. It's really a mind-blower. More about the day's activities in a moment. First, though... A CLARIFICATION, NOT NOT NOT A SOLICITATION!In response to my first e-mail communiqué about Lance & Debbie's hardship, many of you wrote back asking if you could contribute to a relief fund. Frankly, we hadn't thought of such a thing...everyone was catching his orher breath, glad that our friends made it out alive. Today, however, I asked Lance if he would be willing to accept kindness from people who have offered assistance, and after mulling it over he agreed. Somewhat reluctantly, but he agreed. Again, please know that we are not ASKING for donations, but instead are simply telling you where to send a donation IF YOU WISH TO, in response to some of your queries. OK?
And for those of you who inquired about
clothing and other items, I will ask Lance and Debbie about their needs in that regard and
pass the info along. On behalf of my partner and his wife, thanks for your thoughts,
prayers, and offers of assistance. You may remember reading about Michael, Debbie's 20-year-old son. A few weeks before Christmas he was nearly killed in a car wreck. Six months later, he's riding out a Force Five tornado with his mom, step-dad, and two dogs in a closet. Though he wasn't hurt, he was understandably shaken...most of us don't know about the concept of mortality at 20, and he's had to face it head on twice. Sobering. We older folks already know we're gonna die someday. The young don't like being reminded in such harsh ways. The bad news: Of Lance & Debbie's three dogs, one, the oldest, didn't make it. We found his body today and buried him in the back yard. He made it to the ripe old age of 17 before the tornado took him. It was an experience. Most of us couldn't believe our friends survived. When you see the photos you'll understand. But they DID survive, the sun still shines, and they have more adventures ahead. More UpdatesThe police allowed former residents of Lance's destroyed neighborhood back in today, for the first time since the tornado struck. I'm not going to waste time trying to describe the destruction, except to say that it reminded me for all the world of photos I've seen of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, without the intense heat. The destruction was widespread and complete....trees stripped of limbs and leaves, cars wrapped around trees, etc. Winds were clocked at 250 - 260 MPH during the tornado, so you can imagine. The house had not a single wall standing. Not a portion of a wall. It was just a huge pile of lumber, dirt, paper, furniture, and junk. The cars, which had been parked in the garage, were crushed. We did manage to squeeze into the passenger compartments of each, as well as the trunks, and retrieve some items. We took some photos, which I hope to have back in a few days and which I will post on the web site for your viewing. Sorting through the debris is a laborious and at least somewhat dangerous task...take a wrong step and you stumble, or find a nail shoved into your shoe. Or foot. It was a beautiful day, mostly, but the wind blew microscopic pieces of fiberglass insulation all over, which irritates eyes and skin. Despite the sunscreen we all wore, we got mild sunburn...after all, with no trees and no structures, there's no shade. The good news---some items of sentimental or practical value were retrieved. A file cabinet containing personal papers was found, a number of photos, a huge pile of CDs, Debbie's prescription eyeglasses, her deceased mother's cedar chest (which has followed Debbie everywhere though her adult life) containing precious mementos. We also found Lance's computer and peripherals. All were relatively close to where they had been before the tornado, but were beat up and extremely dirty. Lance simply tossed his printer, keyboard, mouse, etc.---they were filled with dirt and crud---but we retrieved the CPU and hope to salvage crucial data from the hard drives...including the complete E-llusions mailing list. More on this as itdevelops.Lance also recovered some magic equipment of great value to him, as
well as some delicate items which belonged to his late mother. He also has a collection of
alabaster or marble eggs, 16 in all...and we found each of them, in the rubble of what had
once been a two-story house. Most touching to me, for some reason, was Debbie's discovery
of a small ceramic clown on a rotating music-box base. It played SEND IN THE CLOWNS when
she picked it up, and there was something about that smiling figurine's happy face and the
slow song tinkling from within that choked me up. Send in the clowns, indeed. People were in a good mood---sometimes a surprisingly good mood---given what they had experienced. Lance is, as always, as calm and dignified as he can be. Debbie was also happy just to have her family intact. Optimism ruled the day. Someone had set up a huge barbecue cooker at the entrance to the neighborhood, and on our way out we stopped to eat after a very long day. They wouldn't take our money. Business Update As I mentioned in my last letter, I have only about 20% of the E-llusions subscribers names on my computer...Lance mailed the newsletter to you each time, and we foolishly did not have all MoonShadow data stored on both our computers. So if you KNOW one or more of your friends to be an E-llusions subscriber, please pass this along to them. If you are unsure, please don't pester folks by forwarding this. LANCE WILL GET BACK TO YOU Again, Lance thanks you all for your words of encouragement and hope. When he has a moment to breathe, Lance will no doubt let himself into my house (he has a key) and retrieve his e-mail using my computer. Meantime, I've made printouts of those message you've emailed to me for him, and passed them along. Please feel free to send email to him at his usual address, or through me. He asks for your patience. It may be some time before he canrespond, but he undoubtedly will. Thanks for your attention and concern, and thanks for your friendship. John E-LLUSIONS arrives every ten days, tornadoes permitting. It's free.
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