在我们埋葬祖母后，水从我们的地下板开始渗透。

Hurricane Harvey始于萨迪的房间。我们的长寿蹲在地板上，用浴巾来坚持水，试图拯救她的娃娃。洪水冲到她的白色和金色恐慌卧室的腿，同样的母亲，然后我用作女孩。它沿着大厅流向壁橱，在那里，我把箱子放在箱子里，这是我的祖父，当我7岁的时候，我的祖父被带瓦片划木。

Murky brown water floated roaches into the room used by Lilah, our 2-year-old, and soaked the chair I rocked both girls to sleep in as babies. It saturated rugs, couches, chairs, and the wooden dining room table my grandmother bought when she arrived in Houston from New York in 1953 with my 3-year-old mother in tow. Sixty-three years later, I returned to Houston from New York with my own 3-year-old in tow. We came in time to meet Harvey.

Houston was home. I grew up here, but I spent most of my 20s and 30s living, working, and loving in New York. Grandma, the daughter of a New York City department store magnate and a fiery Austrian immigrant from the Lower East Side, had New York in her blood. But in her late 20s, she got tired of the hustle. So did I.

I gave birth to my youngest in midtown. Shortly after, the city started to make me sick. The commute to work took an hour, day care closed too early, the bus was late, the train was stuck. Running, always running. My body had had enough. Houston gave me time and space. We traded in our 800-square-foot Brooklyn apartment for a driveway, a backyard, and cheaper rent, groceries, and gas. Here, we could buy a home, just as Grandma had done.

当我们离开纽约时，我告诉我的丈夫我已经完成了租房。我自从富勒斯利以来一直住在九个公寓。搬进了;房东也是。我渴望放下根，大胆地挂着图片，知道这次我们不会把它们占据一两年。我们在休斯顿租一年，我们决定，然后买。

哈维打前两个星期,我奶奶的手in her apartment at Brookdale Senior Living Solutions, 15 minutes from our rental house. She lay propped up on pillows in a hospital bed in a pink nightgown, frail and pasty. She hadn’t eaten for a week. Her mouth was open, her eyes shut, and she took deep, labored breaths. I played her Mozart—her favorite—on my iPhone, and I told her about the new ranch-style house we’d just bought not far from her first home in Houston. We’d close in a few weeks, I said.

我们的新家坐落在距离梅耶兰的犹太社区中心的树木衬里街道上，距离市中心附近的少数价格合理的街区之一。我告诉奶奶，我们能够向幼儿园走向幼儿园。我看到萨迪和Lilah学习骑自行车上下人行道。我会在我们的新厨房准备晚餐，我告诉奶奶，然后向露台开放起居室的门，并在女孩们爬上后院游戏套装时烧烤。

但哈维有其他计划。

梅内兰超过80％的房屋淹没了。超过一英尺的水流入我梦寐以求的房子里，我们即将关闭的房子。我发现了洪水后的一天。我坐在一个陌生人家的沙发上，距离我们的租赁住宅往往翻阅我们的Waterlogged几乎回家的Facebook上的图片。另一个邻居，也是一个陌生人，从借来的独木舟租赁中获救了我们，并将我们带到他朋友的干燥，两层楼的家中。我们在五年后离开了我们租房的房子，聆听Lilah尖叫的黑暗时光从她的高脚椅上释放。我们把她绑在一起，让她通过洪水跋涉，然后关掉力量并坐在黑暗中等待有人救助我们。

洪水后的一天，看着我们几乎卧室的照片，我的心沉没了。我们对未来五个，10日，20岁的生活愿景在一天内从我们这里猛拉。我们很幸运。我们毫发地出现了。我们在梅内兰购买了我们的合同。但是我的一部分仍然哀悼我们差不多的家。我想知道，我们从哪里开始？

哈维摧毁了大部分物品。我们将家具从奶奶的公寓里乘坐我们的新租赁住宅，在附近的附近没有洪水，我们无法真正负担得起。我和我的女孩依偎在奶奶的奶油色的沙发上。我的丈夫和我在床上读书，古董灯光。我们在20世纪50年代的餐桌上分享我们的餐桌，我们修复了。在这里，我的女孩，我的丈夫和奶奶和我在一起。这所房子不是我们的，但现在，它是家。