Guest post by: Calli Forbes
Alex and Doris consider themselves lucky, despite the damage their High River home suffered in recent flooding. I had the opportunity to meet them in my work with the Red Cross in Alberta, where they told me not of what they lost in the flood, but what they still had.
They showed me the precious photo albums they had managed to pull from the invading muddy waters – pictures of family vacations in the Rockies, their children’s birthday parties and Christmas’ passed.
Doris shuffled amongst the furniture, ornaments and boxes left to dry in the garage and reached for another album containing black and white photos. It was the couple’s wedding album. The pictures were taken almost 50 years ago to the day on a church’s steps in Melville, Sask. There were black and white photos of their wedding party lined up in a row and of Alex throwing his wife back in his arms and planting her with a kiss.
Even through the dust and the grime that covered the album’s pages, you could see the happiness radiating from them. Doris looked like a queen, stunning in a white lace dress with a tiara on top of her head, and Alex, a character straight out of Mad Men, with pompadour-styled hair and a crisp suit. He often gazed lovingly at his wife’s beauty.
“Why do you think I married her?” he remarks, causing us all to erupt in laughter. These young lovers back in 1963 probably never would have imagined that their 50 wedding anniversary would be spent returning to a home now decorated with mud and grime, the aftermath of flooding that had forced the entire community of High River to evacuate.
Even though their backyard is now a sea of caked mud, Alex and Doris say they feel blessed to have the support of their family, community, and the Canadian Red Cross. “Even just that (the Red Cross is) here and talking to us is a big help,” Doris says. “It really meant a lot to me that help was available.”