Italy - Our thoughts and prayers are with you.

Nearly a year ago I was getting ready for work and walking through our bathroom. As I passed by the shower doors, I heard them rattling as if someone was pushing their hand on them. I know our house is not that flimsy that me simply walking past the shower causes the doors to rattle.

I'm looking at the doors as I pass and then I heard the large mirror over the double sinks begin to rattle loudly. I felt a little like I was in a Twilight Zone show. My head is swiveling between the doors and the mirror with an extremely puzzled look on my face. What in the world?

Bob had not gotten up yet and I had a fleeting idea that maybe this could be an earthquake. Now I realize that Indiana does lie on the New Madrid fault, but we so rarely ever have one that most of us simply do not recognize them when they happen. Just as the thought is forming in my head I hear Bob say, "What the hell is that?" He didn't hear the rattling but felt the shake HARD. I didn't feel the shaking, maybe because I was standing or maybe because I was so confused by the noise.

They said it was a 5.2 magnitude 40 miles north of Evansville. We lived well over 150 miles away. I quickly turned on the morning news and saw the crew from Channel 13 come back from a commercial wide-eyed and was talking about the studio shaking.

We had a few aftershocks later in the day while I was at work. I could feel those, not just hear them. The whole office was abuzz with earthquake stories.

I got a call from my "California" daughter who now lives in Texas. She wanted to make sure we were all okay. When I explained about the mirror rattling she had a slight panic in her voice, "Did you get under a doorway?" Uhhh, well no. I just stood there gaping at the mirror and shower doors. Having lived most of her life in California, she does not have the same reaction to earthquakes that we do.

Sadly, we who have not lived in a frequent quake zone area do not understand the seriousness of an earthquake. It's just something we hear about in California, or Bali or China. In Indiana, we ignorantly spend a "quake" day saying, "Did you FEEL that one?" We simply do not take them seriously, which one day, I fear will be a big mistake given the size of the fault we live on.

On Monday, 70 northeast of Rome there was a 6.3 quake, yesterday a 5.5 aftershock and only 9 hours ago a 5.3 aftershock. We pray for L'Aquila and all those affected in Italy and throughout the world. It is unfathomable for us Midwesterners to fully grasp what this must be like, but we do grieve along with you for your loss.