Creative Non-Fiction
Prologue
For my Creative Non-Fiction project I interviewed my friends, Michele and Keith. They are a married couple with two boys, ages twelve and nine. In 2005, they were on vacation in Mexico with fifteen other family members when Hurricane Wilma, a category 5 storm, wreaked havoc on the popular vacation spot.
At the time of this event, I did not know Michele and Keith very well. I knew they could possibly be in a dangerous situation, and I was relieved when they arrived home, but I never had the opportunity to speak to them about their experiences. Other friends filled me in with sketchy details, but Michele and Keith were reserved and quiet about the subject. I got the feeling they had survived a harrowing ordeal. I've always been curious and concerned about what happened to them during Hurricane Wilma, and I was delighted when they agreed to share their recollections with me.
I interviewed Michele and Keith separately, both at my home and theirs. I interviewed Michele on the evening of October seventeenth. I waited one week before interviewing Keith. I was interested in investigating the differences in their memories, and I was hoping that, in that week, Keith would think about and begin to remember forgotten details about their experiences. I first began my interviews with the intention of focusing on the human coping mechanism. I knew Michele and Keith were vacationing with a lot of family members. I imagined that they were all learning a great deal about each other in such a stressful situation.
In the middle of the second interview I realized that Michele and Keith were not discussing the actions and feelings of the family members who they were vacationing with, even when I attempted to sway the interview in that direction. What did emerge from both interviews was the extraordinary amount of support they received from the resort staff and other stranded vacationers. With no means of communication, the hotel staff were unsure of what was happening to their own families. Despite this fact, they were still working to make the stranded families comfortable. Michele remembers with gratitude good samaritans who entertained her children and gave up their airplane seats to keep her family together.
In conducting the interviews, we stumbled upon the themes of trust and loss of control. The two are intertwined. It was necessary for Keith and Michele to put their trust in the hotel staff in Mexico at the same time that Hurricane Wilma was taking away their sense of control. As the storm worsened, they had to have faith that the people around them, hotel staff and vacationers, were doing their best to keep everyone safe. My interviews with Michele and Keith pointed to the fact that faith and trust are human coping mechanisms in times of distress.
As I pressed for details about how Keith and Michele's family members were dealing with the uncertainty of being trapped during Hurricane Wilma, the focus of the interviews began to shift to the actions and feelings of Michele's family members who were at home wondering and worrying about what was happening in Mexico. Michele gave me a folder full of news and weather reports tracking the course of the storm. Since they had no means to communicate, her father had printed these documents as he scoured the internet for any information at all that would help him discover what was happening to his family.
I've chosen to depict Michele and Keith's experiences and those of their family members in my own words through a series of emails from Michele to her father. I've chosen a form and point of view that will illuminate the human coping mechanism that takes over during times of stress and uncertainty.
At the time of this event, I did not know Michele and Keith very well. I knew they could possibly be in a dangerous situation, and I was relieved when they arrived home, but I never had the opportunity to speak to them about their experiences. Other friends filled me in with sketchy details, but Michele and Keith were reserved and quiet about the subject. I got the feeling they had survived a harrowing ordeal. I've always been curious and concerned about what happened to them during Hurricane Wilma, and I was delighted when they agreed to share their recollections with me.
I interviewed Michele and Keith separately, both at my home and theirs. I interviewed Michele on the evening of October seventeenth. I waited one week before interviewing Keith. I was interested in investigating the differences in their memories, and I was hoping that, in that week, Keith would think about and begin to remember forgotten details about their experiences. I first began my interviews with the intention of focusing on the human coping mechanism. I knew Michele and Keith were vacationing with a lot of family members. I imagined that they were all learning a great deal about each other in such a stressful situation.
In the middle of the second interview I realized that Michele and Keith were not discussing the actions and feelings of the family members who they were vacationing with, even when I attempted to sway the interview in that direction. What did emerge from both interviews was the extraordinary amount of support they received from the resort staff and other stranded vacationers. With no means of communication, the hotel staff were unsure of what was happening to their own families. Despite this fact, they were still working to make the stranded families comfortable. Michele remembers with gratitude good samaritans who entertained her children and gave up their airplane seats to keep her family together.
In conducting the interviews, we stumbled upon the themes of trust and loss of control. The two are intertwined. It was necessary for Keith and Michele to put their trust in the hotel staff in Mexico at the same time that Hurricane Wilma was taking away their sense of control. As the storm worsened, they had to have faith that the people around them, hotel staff and vacationers, were doing their best to keep everyone safe. My interviews with Michele and Keith pointed to the fact that faith and trust are human coping mechanisms in times of distress.
As I pressed for details about how Keith and Michele's family members were dealing with the uncertainty of being trapped during Hurricane Wilma, the focus of the interviews began to shift to the actions and feelings of Michele's family members who were at home wondering and worrying about what was happening in Mexico. Michele gave me a folder full of news and weather reports tracking the course of the storm. Since they had no means to communicate, her father had printed these documents as he scoured the internet for any information at all that would help him discover what was happening to his family.
I've chosen to depict Michele and Keith's experiences and those of their family members in my own words through a series of emails from Michele to her father. I've chosen a form and point of view that will illuminate the human coping mechanism that takes over during times of stress and uncertainty.
Wilma
To Michele & Keith,
Thank you for sharing your stories with me. I hope my creative non-fiction piece captures the essence of your experiences.
Paula