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The rain is inescapable.
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David Blackburn, left, 37, pictured with his wife Dawn, 35, died Aug. 18, 2007 saving her life after their truck was swept off of Houston County Road 6 near La Crescent, Minn. Dawn is raising their two boys, Michael, 6, and Noah, 4.
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“When it rains and rains and rains all day, you get an overlying dread,” said Jonathan Ask, who lost his older brother David Ask to the flood.
Nancy Lorenz, who lost her son, Jered, to the floods, echoed that sentiment.
“When it rains, it doesn’t matter how much,” she said. “I feel like something bad is coming.”
The rain doesn’t really bother Brenda Micheel, whose parents John and Shirley Micheel died during the flood. She said it was winter’s first big snow storm that gave her anxiety. She was making a short drive to Plainview when she had a panic attack and the commute took an hour and a half.
Despite their initial sorrow, new anxieties and constant reminders, most of the families have found something positive to cling to.
Jonathan Ask has taken up writing, something his brother loved to do. He has written numerous poems and short stories since January about growing up on a dairy farm with his nine siblings as a way to remember “simpler times.”
Along with some friends, Jered Lorenz’s sister, Tricia, has established the “GW Pool Tournament” to memorialize her brother and raise money for youth firearm safety training. Their hope is to inspire young people to gain interest in one of Jered’s favorite pastimes, hunting.
“I don’t take things for granted,” Dawn Blackburn said. Her husband — the father of two of her four children — David, lost his life saving hers as their truck was swept away by rushing waters. “I’m just living for my children,” she said. “That’s all I can do.”
Electronics repairman lived in the dark
David Roland “Little Oscar” Ask lived alone in a trailer near Storer Creek in Houston County. Despite being able to fix anything electronic, Ask didn’t have electricity running to his trailer, his brother Terry Ask said. He would fire up a generator only as long as he needed it during his repair work, he said.
David loved to write poetry, but he was “such a Luddite” about electricity and computers. (Luddites were British textile workers who rebelled against the Industrial Revolution by destroying mechanized looms in the early 1800s.) Everything was written in longhand and disappeared in the flood, another brother, Jonathan Ask said. He regrets not being able to keep his brother’s “main gift” alive.
David, 55, called his neighbor around 12:30 a.m. Aug. 19 to say he was going to stay put in his trailer because it appeared the water — only a foot away from the door — was receding. That may have been the case, but the ground his house stood on gave way. His body was found about a mile and a half downstream by the same neighbor he last spoke with.
David’s 90-year-old father suffered a heart attack when he heard about his son’s death. He survived a triple bypass surgery a week later, just after David’s funeral.
“It’s been a tough year,” Terry said.
Terry takes things day by day and Jonathan said time has been healing their wounds. Both brothers have been able to move on with their lives, even though their memories of David can be painful.
“There isn’t a moment that goes by I don’t think about what my brother went through that last night,” Terry said. “It just hurts.”
Jonathan kept an upbeat attitude and said David’s death has given him a reason to set — and keep — New Year’s resolutions: to live a cleaner life in memory of his brother.
The ultimate sacrifice
Michael and Noah Blackburn, ages 6 and 4, ask their mother just about every other day where their father, David is.
“He’s in heaven,” Dawn Blackburn says. “Watching over them.”
David Blackburn, 37, died while saving Dawn’s life as their truck was swept off of Houston County Road 6 near La Crescent, Minn., by rushing currents. They were clinging to the roof when David boosted Dawn to a tree limb nearby. She grabbed hold as the truck was washed away beneath her, along with David.
“He saved my life,” Dawn said. “If it wasn’t for Dave, I wouldn’t be here today.”
She said she lives each day with that in mind, thanking her late husband for giving his life to save hers. All she can do now, she said, is live for her children. She plays baseball and T-ball with them and tries her best to explain what happened to their father.
Constant reminders surround David’s family members, but some things are harder to bear than others. Every time the song, “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother” by The Hollies, plays on the radio, it throws David’s mother, Allie Whitehead, for a loop. David used to sing along to that song with his brothers when they were growing up. But now that David is dead, and she can’t stand to listen anymore.
Holidays were difficult to get through this year, but birthdays are the worst. David would wish his family members a happy birthday as soon as possible. He would barge into a bedroom or call on the phone at one minute past midnight just to remind people, “It’s your birthday,” Allie said.
The call never came this year.
Even though the family is still struggling over their loss, Allie, who had already lost three children prior to David’s death, said her faith in God is what keeps her going.
“I know my poor children are in heaven and are waiting for me,” she said.
Pointing fingers
Billy Gensmer sued several entities in Winona County including the Sheriff’s Department and the Highway Department because he said they failed to sufficiently warn his parents of a “lethal and cavernous hole” that swallowed their Jeep Cherokee early Aug. 19.
Victor Gensmer, 79, was driving his wife, Joyce, 67, to work at Saint Anne Extended Healthcare in Winona around 5:45 a.m. Less than a mile away from their Witoka, Minn., home, Victor drove into a washout created on County Road 17. They plunged 30 feet to their deaths.
Billy Gensmer is seeking more than $100,000 in damages. He claims Winona County knew about the hole in the road for several hours before his parents died. According to witnesses and Winona County Dispatch, one other driver survived falling into the hole and at least three others stopped short of suffering the same fate between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m.
The defendants denied negligence and legal responsibility because they handled “hundreds of 911 calls that night,” court documents show.
The suit is currently in the process of discovery and is not scheduled for a court date until early 2009, Billy Gensmer’s attorney, Daniel Doda, said.
Billy Gensmer could not be reached for comment.
Up for sale
Christmas was tough.
Even though John and Shirley Micheel’s three children managed to continue selling Christmas trees and wreaths from the family tree farm, the tradition wasn’t the same. Their daughter Brenda Micheel said she probably could have done without it.
It was the first time John and Shirley didn’t host the family’s festivities. They didn’t host Thanksgiving or Easter either. It was the first time the children really realized how much their parents did.
“They did everything,” Brenda said.
John, 67, and Shirley, 66, died on Aug. 18 when their car was swept away in Garvin Brook on County Road 23 just outside Stockton.
At first, Brenda couldn’t accept the fact that her parents were really gone. Her mom was her best friend and she would miss her dad’s sense of humor. Life feels empty without them even, though it feels like they’re still around.
“It took a long time for reality to kick in,” she said.
The demands of the tree farm helped extend those feelings. There was so much mowing, chopping and selling to be done, the three Micheel children barely had time to register what had happened. But since the holiday season ended, the kids realized they were left with 105 acres of tree farm and a home full of childhood memories. With everyone doing their own things, they were forced to sell the home they all grew up in.
“It would be nice to keep,” she said, “but it’s not very practical.”
An estate auction took care of most of their parents’ things, but the house remained. It went on the market in early July and is still for sale.
Just getting by
Nancy Lorenz has gone through some difficult things over the past year. She came down with a lung infection after the August floods, likely because of water in the basement of her Lewiston home. A colon infection followed and then a cancerous left kidney had to be removed. She dealt with all of these things all while trying to grieve for her son, Jered Lorenz, who drowned on Aug. 19.
Jerry, 37, was driving home from a party when he stopped on a bridge at the Enterprise rest area on Interstate 90. Nobody knows why he stopped, Nancy said, but a wave from the Rush Creek swept him and his girlfriend’s Pontiac Grand Prix over the edge of the creek’s banks. The car was found bashed and upside down in the creek bed the next morning. Jerry’s body was found three days later, tangled in debris.
Jerry’s death was a shock to his friends and family members, who gathered for round-the-clock searches. But rather than dwell on his death, they celebrated it. At least 1,000 people attended Jerry’s wake, and Nancy has gotten nothing but support and well wishes from everyone she meets. Jerry was cremated, and his friends and family followed his wishes by spreading the ashes at his favorite hunting spot and in the creek that claimed his life.
Several memorials have been made for Jerry. His sister, Tricia Lorenz spelled out the letters “GW” with rocks near where Jerry was found in memory of his nickname, “GW, the Great White Hunter.”
Tricia said she’s in the planning stages of placing a large boulder with Jerry’s name etched into it at the bridge where he was swept away. Tricia and Jerry’s friends held the first annual “GW Pool Tournament” in January to remember Jerry and to raise money for youth firearm safety training. Decals of Jerry’s image were placed on demolition derby cars at the county fair this year as another way to remember.
If all the memorials weren’t enough, Jerry’s family still watches home videos he made of himself hunting, singing or just screwing around with a beehive. The videos bring tears to the eyes of Nancy and Tricia. But watching them brings back fond memories and talking about him daily is therapeutic. It’s all they have left.
“I just really miss him a lot,” Nancy said. “(Jerry’s death) has really put a toll on me.”
Contact Kevin Behr at (507) 453-3524 or at kbehr@winonadailynews.com.
