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End of the World 5/21 (Almost)

You are here: Home / Grace Stories / End of the World 5/21 (Almost)

June 1, 2011 By Janneke

End of the world descends on Gilroy – disaster averted

Most of us didn’t tell our children that Saturday, May  21 was end of the world day. There’s always the possibility that the math was wrong. And more importantly, most of us believe in protecting children from extra-bad news like end of the world stuff.

So rather than huddling indoors last Saturday, Craig and Kris’s  son  Cameron was out in the backyard cleaning out his hamster cage.

It’s odd, that often a near-miss with the end of the world occurs when one is being responsible. Another possibility is when one is having fun. But I digress, Cameron was cleaning his hamster cage, not fun (digression), definitely responsible — as if life would go on a long time (back to the point). A dull roar entered Cameron’s consciousness. He thought a lawn-blower was getting louder and louder, polluting  the air with fumes and roaring noise. Only there were no fumes, just noise.

Then a darkness clouded the sun. This was when Cameron ran into the house, yelling, “Dad, dad!” I bet Mom was around, but kids rarely run into the house at such a point, yelling “Mom, mom!” (Sorry for another digression. But I’m a mom, ask me to tell you the story about my son, the deadly spider, and my husband some time).

So, even when faced with a darkening, loud backyard, and a possible attack on the neighborhood, Craig went into the backyard. If this was a movie, the audience would have been yelling. “No, no, do not go into the backyard.” But such situations require heroes, and off Craig went, into his formerly familiar backyard.Courtesy Cornell University

What he found was shocking. A horde of bees , a large dark swarm, had arrived in his yard, settling on one branch of a tree. No longer blocking the sun, the quivering mass buzzed and settled. Maybe this is the end of the world, Craig must have thought, the pestilence has arrived.

Keeping everyone safe in the house, Craig sprung into action. He called animal control and got a bee keeper’s number. He called the bee keeper who didn’t even  arrive  in a cool all-white, netted-hat bee-suit. Instead, in  his every day clothes, he was stung about 5 times while shaking a box under the bees. Some entered, then they all went in, containing the pestilence.

Danger left an innocent backyard in Gilroy, California.Courtesy Stockphotos.it

Sometimes danger is contained. It ended up in a container.

 

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Filed Under: Grace Stories Tagged With: Beekeeping, Bees, End of the World, Faith and Meaning after World War II, Family, Parenting

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Meet Janneke

Janneke Jobsis Brown
Following Shadows is inspired by my own story. As a survivor of an international childhood with parents who were World War II survivors, I know the generational after-effects of starvation and slave labor in Japanese concentration camps for my father, and the terror of Nazi occupation for my mother. I know the challenges of struggling to feel at home across three countries: The Netherlands, Iran and America.

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