The Blizzard of 1978

January never comes that I don't think about my Knight in Shining Armor, my Dad. Young Love always needs a safe place to land when misunderstandings seem to mean the end of your world. A Dad willing to brave a blizzard, memorable in a most unusual way.

Boyfriend words spoken and not understood cause the heart to ache as though it will never beat normally again. Flight seemed the only option to me. If I couldn't have my True Love, I could at least be in the place that was closest to his heart. That it was 700 miles from home wasn't even a thought. Snow beginning to fall not even noticed.

With all my worldly belongs filling the back seat of my Mustang and my father's credit card in my wallet, I headed North to begin a new life. Tears falling with each remembered word, the landscape turning white with each mile passed. I thought I was so lucky to be the car behind the snowplow barely seen through my snowy windshield. I didn't recognize I was the only car on the road, for 27 hours!

Traverse City, Michigan. A place to live, a waitress job found, a call home to let them know I was okay. "Your father will be on the 3pm flight. Meet him at the airport, you must come home!" Fear replaced my anguish that my actions had caused my father to miss a day of work. Trepidation over his peculiar quirks  bearing true with my first sight of him.

Miles taller than anyone else, there was my most distinguished father debarking from the plane, dressed in his uniform suit, tie in place, his pajama bottoms peeking out from his cuffs, his toiletries filling each pocket to be found. "I didn't want to pay for luggage!" his response to my embarrassment. "Let's go, I'll do the driving."

How my father ever bent his fame into the tiny space that was the driver's seat, is still a mystery to me. His knees stradled the steering wheel barely leaving room for his hands. A stop at the gas station became a moment of lifetime mortification. My father could not get out of the car!

I stood shivering in the still falling snow with interested passersby as the station attendants dismantled the car seat to free my father. And still he wanted to drive! "It's a blizzard, Lizzie, I can't let you drive!" Oh my goodness! My father drove me all the way home by sitting on the car's back seat, his legs still cramped in the small space.

Not a single word was mentioned our long drive home about my silly decision to flee and cause such worry. My father's soothing professor's voice quieting my anxiety with talk of all the curious things that interested me. Not but one day away from home, the light of a new day seeming possible again. A mended heart begun by the care of a father.

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