The Flying Barn

It was a very warm August day about 1957 in Duncan, Arizona. It was too hot to play outdoors so the girls were busy with their dolls in one corner of the room and I was in the opposite corner working on my sewing machine. For no apparent reason I heard a voice that told me to get the girls and take them to their Grandmother McGrath's house. I thought, why would I do that. The girls are happy and I am busy. So I went on sewing. In a minute or two I heard the voice again. "Get the girls and leave" I was still busy so I ignored it. Again it came and this time it was really insistant. "Get the girls and go out to the car and take them to Grandmother's house". So I said "OK OK",then told the girls. Laura was 7 and Karen was 5 years old at this time. Of course they were happy to go to Grandmothers house. They gathered up their toys and put them away and we went to the car and drove the mile to Grandmother's house. When we got there I called Raymond at the store and told him where we were. He then asked me if I had put down the windows, because it was going to rain. I said "No" so he said "I'll go do it". Soon after I hung up the phone there was a HUGE thunder clap and the rain started. I mean really heavy rain. We thought it nice to have some rain after a long dry spell.
Later when I talked to Raymond he said he went into the bedroom to put down the window and heard a lot of crashing, breaking glass, heavy wind, banging, and things blowing around. As he went back into the other room what a sight met his eyes. The barn next door had been blown half in two and thrown against our house. The cooler had been knocked away and big timbers had come right through the window to land exactly where my two little girls had been playing only minutes before. It pays to listen to the little voice.