Series: The Atmospheric River
The snippet of video shows a young girl of about 8 years lying on her back deck between two wet towels while the rain pours down on and around her. The towel completely covers her except for one arm that reaches out to feel the rain fall against her bare skin. Her mom films her from inside the house. The caption explains that she is facing the fact her dad, who left them both months earlier, isn’t interested in seeing her anymore. She is trying to cope with big feelings for someone her age. I watch that video for a long time. The hand opening and closing to the rain. The sound of the rain hitting the deck.
I think of my friend whose son, Samuel, had grown a brain tumour and died at 12 years old. The photos of the family surrounding him in his last hours are ingrained in me. After his death there were torrential rains that wiped out communities, causing massive mudslides that swept people and roads away. People died. Our city was marooned and cut off from the rest of the country. Cut off from supplies reaching us. They called it an atmospheric river.
After the torrential rains the war started. Some of our Ukrainian relatives were close to the invasion. We witnessed events go from farcical to alarming to traumatic.
These events and moments are all linked for me. It brought to mind a walk through a park with friends and family in the summer in the UK when a sudden torrential rain storm hit us. There is nothing like it. I spent the storm capturing images of the water, the trees, and the sky. These are the images that tie all of these events together for me.
