Thunderstruck

My granddaughter Libby when she was young had a bit of a problem. She had a terrible fear of thunderstorms. The sky would darken, flashes of light, and the resultant rumble would send her into a panic. I had never been around her when these things happened but had heard of them. I had jokingly suggested to my daughter that they go to the pet store and get her a thunder coat.

One year during her turn with me at grandpa camp, we had a doozy of a storm. She was running around the house saying all kinds of silly things. I corralled her and took her out into our garage. I raised the garage door and held her by the arm as I pointed out the shape of clouds and what they resembled, “Look, that one looks like a lamb, there is a car, doesn’t that look like a boat to you?” She got into the game and calmed right down. She has to my knowledge had no problem since.

The reason for telling this story is because now she is grown, a graduate of Syracuse University with a BS in Engineering and is now at Princeton University. She has her Master and is now studying for her PhD. Her project which was assigned to her by the university is to determine the effect of thunderstorms on plant growth. Life is funny!