It was a small town in California called Loma Prieta. The population only consisted of 3,976 people. They’ve been getting warnings for awhile now about earthquakes, we weren’t prepared for what we were about to experience. It’s hard for anyone to prepare for that kind of expierence.
We were this family of 4, a mother, father, and two daughters both 7 and 17 Annabell, and Brooklyn. Our ancestors have lived here for as long as we can track back. Growing up our parents didn’t have much, they were far from wealthy. In fact they were poor, poor as dirt. They wanted to give everything possible they could to me and my sister. One tragic day, a earthquake hit our town, with the magnitude of 6.9 It ticked past the 60 second mark. Towers shook, and buildings crumbled. It was terrifying, like a bad nightmare. We lost everything. Almost like your whole life was flashing before your eyes. 119 people survived. The rest tragically passed away, including our mother and father. Me and my sister were devastated. We just lost the two most important people in our life, our mother and father. We had nobody else to turn too, no grandparents, aunts or cousins. 117 people we didn’t know existed in the first place, nowhere to go, and nothing to eat. Luckily the closest town wasn’t too far away, my older sister Brooklyn had a bright idea “Annabell” she said, “Lets walk to the next town and rent a hotel with some money I have saved.” “Okay” I replied. As the days go on, things seem to get worse. Brooklyn keeps trying to keep me calm, but she can’t tend to keep herself calm. She starts to develop what most people call survivor's guilt, because our parents passed away along with the rest of the town and we were two of the 119 people that survived. As much as she is hurting she still finds the way to grow up and take care of me. She has to be mom now, there’s nobody else to take care of us. Brooklyn starts applying for jobs, and keeps getting denied.
Until one day, she gets a phone call, the phone call we’ve been waiting for for months. She finally got hired working at a hair and nail salon. Months go by, she’s loving her job and gaining friendships with her clients. She bought us a new apartment, she knows our parents would love it. She got me enrolled in the near by school. I was having a hard time adjusting to the new teacher and new students, but I’m loving it now. It made losing mom and dad a little more tolerable now. I hear her yelling at me from the hall “ANNABELL!”, I shouted back “What?” she was begging we go to the store and buy a lottery ticket considering she just turned 18, not thinking we’d win anything more than a couple of bucks she scratches off the last box and all I hear is “AAHHHHHH! I CAN’T BELIEVE IT, THIS CAN’T BE REAL!!”. We won the lottery! Of course she was insisting on how we go to the mall and buy new purses and jeans. I said “No come on, just take a second to take this all in. Lets think about the things we could do with this money.”
Couple months go by we haven’t really thought of much, until one day, it clicked. “We can help restore Valdez!” Brooklyn shouted, “It’s a mess! It needs it!.” Both of us looked at each other with smiles on our faces, tears rolling down our cheeks like a waterfall. As much as the new jeans and purses sounded, giving back to our town sounded better. It definitely wasn’t going to happen overnight or in the next couple months, but we had to start somewhere. We held a community meeting and explained ourselves and our situation. Even though it was gonna cost six billion dollars to repair everyone agreed. The next week we were all out there helping rebuild our home.
15 years go by Brooklyn and I both have families, and town Valdez is up and running. Looking better than it’s ever looked. Stores are running, schools are back up and we even invested in a town pool! Brooklyn and I are both beyond grateful we can raise our kids in our hometown where our parents and our kids grandparents grew up. Brooklyn looked over at me with watery eyes as she spoke “I love you Annabell.”