Reassuring news, born of catastrophe
Note: In the midst of an election year where meanness, fear and loathing prevail, we received the following message from Suruchi Sood, an academic and Rain Barrel Associate, who is struggling to recover from a catastrophic fire that destroyed her family’s home in Philadelphia. In the face of traumatic loss and the overwhelming task of starting over, Suruchi and her family were embraced by her neighbors. Her thank you note is a paean to caring communities and solidarity, values that have been under relentless attack for so long that some of us begin to doubt our own convictions. This is her note of gratitude -- and reassurance.
An update from the Sood-Annapragada family
We are all settled into our new home at 177 Thompson Drive in Hockessin Valley farms, the boys (Sid, Ani and Rohan) are all back in school, our kitchen is all set up and ready to cook in and we are steadily getting back on our feet.
Over the last two weeks, we have been trying to wrap our heads around the incredible bounty of support and warm wishes that have come our way.
As a family, we are completely at a loss as to where we begin to thank everyone and repay a tiny fraction of what you have given us. How do we thank the firefighters, some of whom remember taking piano lessons from Mrs. Norman at the barn, who tried everything they could to save the property and apologized for not doing more when there was nothing more they could do?
How do we thank our neighbors who brought us jackets and wrapped them around us while we were standing outside our burning home? How do we every repay all the people who came and stood by us, silently holding us up as we mourned the loss of our dearest friend. How does one say thank you to the Red Cross volunteer who held our hands and slowly led us step by step on what to do next while the fires died down.
How does one even begin to express in words the deep gratitude for someone who simply went ahead and set up an entire support and funding page on line knowing how much we would come to depend on the generosity of an entire global community. How do we even begin, let alone repay the incredible support and generosity of three different schools, the principals, the teachers and all the students who collected books, clothes and cards for us.
The temple set up an entire group of people who sent us home cooked meals for the last two weeks. The churches opened their food and clothing pantries to us. Local businesses started fundraising efforts. Complete strangers gave what they could. It seemed like every realtor in our area was out looking for a home for us and a friend simply put everything on hold to house hunt for us.
Our neighbors came over and gave us everything from spices to kitchen towels. There were gift cards from communities surrounding our old one. There were quilts, books, school uniforms, kitchen supplies, and myriad other things that one takes for granted until they are gone. And all this a tiny fraction when compared to the outpouring of love, warm wishes and offers of help that came our way via phone, text and email from colleagues, friends and family all around the world.
It did not matter who we were, what color our skin, what God we subscribed to or even what our politics were. You came when we needed you and held us until we could stand on our own. This we believe is the real America, the America we fell in love with almost thirty years ago as graduate students; this is the real America that we want to shout out to the world to see, not what is on TV lately.
All we can do is offer you our deepest gratitude and in the immortal words of Tom Hanks in Saving Private Ryan ‘Earn It’ going forward.
Thank you all so very much,
Suruchi, Madhu, Sidharth, Aniket, Rohan