A Perfect Nightmare by Karen Gosbee

Author:Karen Gosbee
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sutherland House Inc

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

The Second Flood

THE SECOND FLOOD RIPPED through Calgary in the middle of June 2013, the worst the city had seen in almost a century. In 2005, it had rained for three weeks beforehand, so the flooding had been expected. This time, there had been only a little rain, so the onslaught came as a surprise. I received a call from George around 10 a.m. one day telling me to get everything out of our basement and first floor. He had been tipped by an engineer who worked for the city as to what was coming. With the boys helping, I got to work.

George had been in constant motion that spring, negotiating his next big deal. He was trying to buy the Phoenix Coyotes, an ailing National Hockey League team. Owning an NHL franchise had been a childhood dream of George’s, and he was determined to make it happen. That entailed a lot of travel between Toronto and Phoenix. When he was in Calgary, he would sometimes stay with me.

I had decided not to follow my lawyer’s advice and formally separate, and hadn’t called her again. She was still in touch with me a year after my appointment, however, and offered to return my retainer. I told her to keep it because it made me feel safe, a sort of insurance policy. Meanwhile, George and I could still sleep together and even sometimes have sex despite everything we had been through. That probably said more about our ability to function with trauma than the true state of our relationship.

The water levels were peaking by 10 p.m. on the first night of the flood, so we evacuated with the children to the Hyatt downtown. But the flood was inundating downtown as well, and when everybody was evacuated from the Hyatt, we checked into the Blackfoot Inn, further away from the flooding. It took about a week for the water to recede to the point where we could return to the neighbourhood.

As he did during the previous flood, George took on a leadership role. He stayed at a friend’s house and the two of them monitored the situation from close range. The crisis of the flood reduced the crisis levels in the Gosbee household as the “tribe” instinct kicked in again. We functioned as a family unit, with George as the spokesperson. Our house had been submerged by the waters of the Elbow River, and people came off the street to help as we ripped out drywall and demolished damaged parts of our house. It was hard work, and there was no time to wonder about George’s moods.

The 2013 flood was larger, and affected many more people, than the first one. Among those hardest hit were those who lived along the river, where the most expensive real estate was. The loss of those homes caused financial problems and a great deal of stress for our family personally, and for many others. After the flood, Alberta premier Alison Redford said the province would

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