Penny for the Guy

Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. Song of Songs 8. 7

In the cemetery where my parents are buried, a huge part of a tree has fallen and covers a large portion of the ground including gravestones. We went out there to look around yesterday and were relieved to see that my parent's and my grandmother's headstones were fine, but others were damaged. As we looked around at the uncovered ones, my husband saw the verse above on one of the stones. He commented on how appropriate it was for us at this time given the wrath of Hurricane Helene.

The only experience I have ever had with mudslides like we had in western NC was from the Aberfan disaster, a catastrophic collapse of a colliery spoil tip on 21 October 1966. The tip had been created on a mountain slope above the Welsh village of Aberfan, near Merthyr Tydfil, and overlaid a natural spring. Heavy rain led to a build-up of water within the tip which caused it to suddenly slide downhill killing 116 children and 28 adults as it engulfed Pantglas Junior School and a row of houses. My family was living in England at the time, so we were all particularly upset by this tragedy. In England, rather than celebrating Halloween, the children celebrate Guy Fawkes Day which is November 5 and the day the country remembers the failure of Guy Fawkes' plot to blow up parliament. Children go door to door saying "Penny for the Guy" to raise money for fireworks for the celebration. But in October of 1966, children all over England went door to door saying "Penny for Aberfan" raising money for the people in the village who had lost everything.

What if...our Halloween celebration this year becomes a collection for victims of Hurricane Helene rather than a candy extravaganza??? That certainly would be a beautiful example of the verse, "Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it."