Bradley and Brody

Dear Normal Day, Bradley German remembers mowing the lawn. “It was a good, beautiful day.” Hot enough that he took his shirt off while friends joked and tossed pieces of hail at each other as the storm rolled in. Then his son Brody described what happened next in a way adults never could: “Then the walls left.” That’s the strange thing about the days that change our lives. They rarely announce themselves. They begin as normal days. Lawn mowing days. Laughing with friends days. The kind of day you barely notice while you’re living it. Until suddenly, your life changes on a normal day. What happens next, I’m told by survivors, is the undeniable strength of our will to survive. Bradley raced his son on the back of a pick up truck to a hospital that had nearly been torn in two by the tornado. Doctors broke locks with axes. The family dog, a tiny Chihuahua named Cinnamon, found her way to the hospital and curled up beside Brody. Now, Brody thinks his scar is cool. A reminder of a day that will never be normal. Sincerely, Robert X. Fogarty