A Family’s Water Damage Story

8/2/2022 (Permalink)

When I was in elementary school, my family went out on vacation to Big Bear leaving my older sister behind to watch the house. A real wise decision on my parent’s part, leaving a high schooler an entire home in the suburbs to herself for the week. 

The vacation was normal, mediocre at best; it was the events upon arriving home that marked the core memories of my childhood. My sister had flooded the entire house from clogging the upstairs toilet. My mother, enraged, asked “How in the hell did you clog the toilet?!” My sister replied, “I took a really big sh**.” Mind you, my sister was about 5 feet tall and 110 pounds at this time. 

Apparently, she sold her case well because my parents believed her. The following weeks went as any water damage restoration job would go. 

Technicians came in, assessed the damage, and proposed that nearly the entire house had to be covered in containment material and dried with dehumidifiers. 

My younger sister and I at the time would always play in the office room, and that was one of the areas that was sealed off with containment material. The area was still safe to use, but from wall to wall the room was covered in plastic. To my sister and I’s 8 year old minds, this was the perfect scene for a choreographed music video to Rhianna’s song “Shut up and Drive.” 

We worked tirelessly coming up with the perfect dance moves and camera angles on our 1080p camera recorder. The environment was a once in a lifetime set up for the perfect pop star moment. 

We finished the video and performed it for our parents who sat and watched, pretending we were the greatest stars to ever exist. The video still sits in our family's archives til' this day, a staple in our history. 

And what about my older sister? Well, about 10 years later the truth came out. She did not clog the toilet with a massive turd. Rather, she threw the largest rager to ever occur in that suburban town, and masterfully got away with it. 

Lesson learned here is that parents, though your children may make costly mistakes, there is always a positive side to every situation, even if it’s as silly as a music video made by your eight year old girls that will forever be one of the best memories kept from their childhood.