LEARNING TO FLOAT
By Brooke Adams
That spring taught us that in a disaster, you’re on your own. It was 1984. For the second year, record-breaking snowfall buried Utah and our home in Vivian Park, and now the state was sinking beneath biblical floods. The South Fork of the Provo, usually a lazy stream, raged mightily, washing out the bridge to Fairfax Drive, where we lived year-round. We crossed those waters just once, our yellow Ford Escort bobbing like a lure before we reeled back and, pedal to metal, cast across to dry ground. We expected the National Guard to rescue us any moment. But there were no saviors. And that’s how a fallen log that spanned the stream, just wide enough for a footpath, became our new way home.
Brooke Adams is a former journalist who wrote for the Deseret News, the Salt Lake Observer and the Salt Lake Tribune. She is co-author of “Love Times Three.” Adams previously worked as an executive communications manager at the University of Utah and currently is a senior communication strategist at the University of Florida.