An Amazing Community

It’s been almost three months since the flood and I found myself needing to drive back through my old neighborhood off Pennington Bend and look at the progress. You see, my family and I had been renting a house near Opryland since we moved from Atlanta in January. We evacuated our house early on May 2nd when the water starting building up in the streets and weren’t able to get back to it for several days. I consider us lucky. We were renting our house so we only lost stuff. Mostly replaceable stuff. So many of our neighbors lost everything they owned in that flood and now, when I drive through, I see the streets dotted with “Pods” of their salvageable belongings as they continue to (hopefully) move forward in the process of rebuilding. As for us, we have moved on to a different rental house with different stuff. We are lucky.

The feeling that still overwhelms me is gratitude. Nashville is an amazing community of people who truly have the volunteer spirit. There was never a time in the whole post-flood process where I felt like we wouldn’t be okay or felt alone. From the families at our kids’ school to the congregations of local churches, we were surrounded by help during the days of clearing out the house and separating our life’s accumulation of stuff into piles of trash and salvage. Once that was complete, we had a temporary place to stay and all the items we absolutely needed to create an atmosphere of normalcy for the kids. Again, this was thanks to the community, specifically the families from school and the staff and board members of NCT.

Since then, I’ve continued to witness and benefit from amazing acts of kindness and generosity. Three months later there is no doubt that this – both Nashville as a whole and Nashville Children’s Theatre – is exactly where I am supposed to be today.

Kathryn Colegrove
NCT Managing Director

Flowers in Kathryn's backyard were buds covered by mud and water during the flood, but bloomed beautifully amidst the recovery a few days after the water receded.