NORMALITY- NORMALCY LETTER:
Almost 2 months since Hurricane Harvey hit our beloved town. The final damages assessments and reports are not good.
Some common questions we have been asked...
How you all doing?..and your home? Are you staying in Rockport? How is real estate now? How bad is David's businesses now?...
My mind spins every time but my answers been the same: We are blessed, we will be ok and God willing we will be here, where we had chosen to live 3 years ago this month and real estate or food industry as any businesses and job opportunities out there will still be great!... Yes, we believe there is always an opportunity out there to anyone who wants to embrace change!.... good or bad ones!
On the environmental side, our beautiful estuary will deal with hard challenges for many years ahead but nature is a renewing thing, hopefully will find a way to recover from the storm and we have many good green people and organizations working even harder to get the help needed to recover from it.
Our sense of normalcy 'changed', of course it did!... Some days I wake up broken hearten, seem so many trees, habitats for our amazing wildlife completely destroyed... hurts my forester heart!... Watching so many friends coming back to find out they lost everything, making us sad but understanding how blessed we were, we had minor damages compared to those!... But in general it's getting better each day, not getting easier but as I keep saying, it's making us stronger!
Simple things like having our town's blue crab statue destroyed been replaced by artist Nancy Ray Taylor's painting to remind us of hope; seen familiar faces at the Asleep at the Wheels show last Saturday; be able to walk by the beach in the morning or having friends together to cleanup debris out of yards... knowing the Seafair is still going on... small things lights up our day and makes you feel normalcy is coming!... Both David and I are honored and blessed to be part of our loyal clients coming back to business and their recovery's journey to stay in Rockport! Together we are strong!
Many friends from out of town have been reaching out to us asking what can they still do?!... Besides my regular response to donate to the Rockport-Fulton Recovery Funds opened by the Chambers, my pledge to you all is COME VISIT ROCKPORT-FULTON THIS FALL-WINTER!
You might NOT find a pristine & perfect clean town, most of our attraction sites will NOT be rebuilt yet, many venues, hotels, restaurants might NOT be re-opened at full speed yet... But... We WILL WELCOME YOU with open doors and hearts because we appreciate and absolutely need your visit to support our community tourism and economy more than ever!
Our Seafair is this weekend, Rockport Ar Center's Film Festival sometime in November and Tropical Christmas in December!... The show must go on!... so does life!... Whooping Cranes and many birds are already migrating here for the winter and our weather here is perfect that time of the year! So, just come!
If you live in town, support our community efforts, buy locally and volunteer!
Looking forward to see you all soon!... Come see why 'WE LOVE WHERE WE LIVE"!
Sincerely,
Nelida (Neli) Spurrell
