There are some things in life that you can never know for sure, like the weather and the future, and what you think you know can change in an instant. My life had its ups and downs, but I learned to see the good in the bad. Yet, what I didn’t know was that nothing really terrifying ever happened to me. I was in 6th grade in 1947, when what seemed to be a beautiful day turned into the worst day of my life.
I was sitting in the school yard eating lunch. The sun was shining bright, but I could feel a mild breeze begin to blow, and the chilly October air became cold. Clouds were beginning to roll in and cover up the sky. It was typical weather in North Dakota, and it sent chills down my spine. Soon after I finished my lunch, the teacher called us all back into the schoolhouse to start class.
She had just started talking about division, when the principal walked in. In a stern tone of voice, he asked “Mrs. Watt may I have a word with you?” The whole class had a puzzled look on their faces as they started making guesses at what they could be talking about. Mrs. Watt looked concerned as she returned to her desk with a look of worry on her face. “There is a horrible snow storm starting, and we are going to be let out of school early.” Everyone around me jumped with cheer. It was the first snowfall of the year, and to them it meant making snowmen and going sledding. However, with the tone of the adult’s voices, I knew that something horrible was going to happen.
I fought the stampede of students to grab my coat and leave as soon as possible, but not before finding my little brother. The first grade classrooms were on the other side of the school house, but he knew to wait for me so that we could walk home together. We lived not even a mile away from the school, so our mother trusted us to walk by ourselves.
My brother, John, who was short for his age and had a few extra pounds on him, grabbed my hand from behind me. “Sissy, what’s wrong?” he said. “It’s only snowing out.” “It is gonna snow a lot. We have to hurry up and get home.”
We left through the front door. The snow was already falling, and left a thick white blanket across the ground. It was hard to see what was ahead of us, but we pressed on through the snowy mist. We managed to find the dirt road that led to our house and started walking home.
The weather was completely opposite than this morning, and my brother and I were not prepared for the snow. All our mother had us leave with was our blue and red jackets, which were not much thicker than our shirts. Hardly anybody in the town knew that the snow was even coming.
About half way home, my brother and I couldn’t see anything in front of us. It was extremely cold outside now, and my brother tried to stay close to me.
“Sissy, this doesn’t look like the right way to go home.” said my brother.
The snow was falling down so fast; the wind was blowing so hard that my eyes began to burn. We were wading through the snow, and it was becoming increasingly more difficult for my brother to walk. He kept tripping over the massive piles of snow, and we kept turning around, headed in different directions. I became very worried. It seemed as if every step we took was getting harder and harder. John was becoming very exhausted.
“Can we take a break?” He whined. “It is hard to move my legs, and I am really tired.”
“John we can’t stop now, we have to get home before dark”
“Just five minutes, please sissy.”
“Ok, five minutes.” I said. I found a log on the side of the road that I tipped up for us to sit on. John dug his face into my chest to protect it from the cold. I could feel his body shivering against mine, and his hands were like icicles. I had to get him home. We both needed the warmth and the shelter.
I began to cry, but I didn’t want my brother to see me weak. I thought to myself about what I could do to get us home. I knew that we were on the road that we lived on, but I didn’t know if we were headed in the