My Family Culture: Coping with Catastrophe

There are many things I wish I could take with me and it is a challenge to select three items.  After thinking long and hard, the three items I would take are my wedding rings, my father’s dog tags and a CD.  My wedding rings symbolize the creation of my immediate family and the bond between me and my husband.  My father’s dog tags represent his commitment to the United States and to the Air Force.  For me, they are the symbols of sacrifice and freedom.  Additionally, they are symbols of my life and experiences as a military child.  Dad’s dog tags bring me comfort and peace and would help me to cope with the trauma of losing my home, friends and livelihood. 

The final item I would bring is a CD.  Now this is no ordinary CD, it is one I created after 9/11 and Katrina (and continue to update) in the event that I or my family would ever be impacted by a disaster.  I recognize that I might not have access to what is on the CD for sometime after experiencing the chaos brought on by a disaster.  However, it contains everything I need to get a new start.  The CD contains sentimental items:  photos of my family’s choosing that depict births, weddings, family events, historical moments and our daily lives.  The CD also contains scanned copies of all of our important personal documents:  social security cards, driver’s licenses, account numbers, medical information, birth certificates and insurance information.  After witnessing the events of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, I became (almost) obsessed with making sure we could identify ourselves in the face of disaster; this CD makes that possible.  Sure, access to technology will be limited in the aftermath of a disaster having our identity established will make the transition to our new normal a little easier.

As you can probably imagine, the CD is the item I would take with me if I had to choose only one item of my original three.  I suppose this is where I should tell you that I am a Red Cross disaster response volunteer and I teach disaster preparation to the general public and agencies in my community.  9/11 and Hurricane Katrina motivated me to get involved in disaster response.  One thing that I teach people is to have all of their documents in one place in the event they need to re-establish their identity.  For insurance purposes, there is a photo of my wedding rings on the CD.  Several years ago, I made a photo collage of my father so his dog tags are also captured in pictures.  I am incredibly sentimental, it would be difficult to leave everything behind and cope with the tragic loss a catastrophe brings.  However, I am practical to a fault and the CD allows me to be both practical and sentimental.

What all this says about my family culture is that we value each other and our identity in general.  I have no desire to be in a position where no one knows who the members of my family are.  We are strong and know that we could depend upon each other in a time of crisis.  We might not have any material goods but we would certainly have each other and be able to prove who we are!