Knitting in the Lull

I was born in the lull before the storm:

September 15th 1938
Two months early
Share my birth date with
George Henry Lewis my paternal grandfather.

Arrived six days ahead of the Hurricane of 1938.

But my birth story always held snippets of the hurricane.
My Mother would say:

"They kept waking me to tell me I had a girl.
And I would say, No, I had a boy."

"The nurses told me not to worry when the power
went out. They had put hot water bottles in the incubator."

"The roads were flooded. Daddy and Mae had trouble
getting to the hospital... had to take back roads."

"They had to move the Lewis office to the new building.
Shore Road was flooded. People used row boats."

It took me years to discern that Mother was in the hospital
for ten days. So, her story always accounted my birth
as part of the storm.

I googled the storm:

Facts of the 1938 Hurricane (Francis, 1998)
(*Dubbed the Long Island Express)
Peak Steady Winds - 121 mph
Peak Gust - 186 mph at Blue Hill Observatory, MA.
Lowest Pressure - 27.94 in (946.2 mb) at Bellport, NY
Peak Storm Surge - 17 ft. above normal high tide (RI)
Peak Wave Heights - 50 ft. at Gloucester, MA
Deaths - 700 (600 in New England)
Homeless - 63,000
Homes, Buildings Destroyed - 8,900
Boats Lost - 3,300
Trees Destroyed - 2 Billion (approx.)
Cost - $6.2 million (1938), $15 billion (1998 adjusted)
September 21, 1938.

Today is a stormy day.
Nothing like a hurricane... cloudy, windy, a little dismal.

Jame has been knitting kerchiefs for the girls.
Triangles knit in garter stitch with crocheted chains
for ties.

I think I'll cast one on.

I'm confident that the girls
attired in their kerchiefs
will be photograph worthy.

In fact, I have in mind
that they will probably look like
immigrant children arriving in New York
at the turn of the century.

I'll knit in this birthday morning lull
and wait for the wee girls to come...
and the party to begin.