“Love is like an earthquake-unpredictable, a little scary, but when the hard part is over you realize how lucky you truly are.”

My 20-plus-miles-from-home hometown is Wells, NV. I grew up in the middle of the sagebrush but we drove the dusty gravel and paved roads to Wells for school and church.

Wells is an interesting place. If you didn’t have a compelling reason to stop there, like gas or food, you wouldn’t. My college professors, a married couple, Tom and Louise Plummer, teased me about Nevada and said that they played a game when they drove through the small towns of Nevada. They would challenge each other, “What would you do if God said you had to live THERE?” Wells is that kind of town. The wind blows. There are two legal brothels and no movie theater. The streets are empty. There’s one flashing red light at a four way stop.

And I love Wells.

There are the best kind of people that live there. And in the outlying ranching areas. People wave at each other and greet each other. The high school gym is packed for every basketball game and more than packed for every high school graduation. Everyone wears the really hideously ugly high school colors…orange and black…with pride. People are loyal to each other and stick together, especially the down on their luck types, of which there are plenty.

When I was growing up, along with other Mormon families, we would go to the annual Presbyterian Harvest Dinner after church. The school borrowed chairs and tables from the Mormon church for school events and when I was in about 7th grade, we had church at the high school while our church was being remodeled.

Wells was a soft place to fall while growing up. Some of my teachers had taught my parents in school. I could walk anywhere safely. There wasn’t a person I could run into that didn’t know that I was a Dahl and who my parents and grandparents were.

There was an earthquake in Wells yesterday. It sounds like it was traumatizing. I didn’t even know about it until I got an email from Nate who is Rachel’s husband. Rachel, one of my favorite people and former college roommate, went in the hospital yesterday to give birth. Nate wanted to tell me that news but Rachel also was concerned about the earthquake in Wells and wondering about my family. What!?

I called my dad. As the phone rang, I imagined they were either fine or buried under a pile of rubble. That must be why I hadn’t heard from them. Thankfully it was the former. And they’d been on the phone all morning. My family lives on a lot of “round rocks” as my dad said and a log house, like my parents’, apparently rolls right with the punches.

Like the good sisters in Zion that they are, my sisters were on the phone, checking on the people they visit teach and friends. Marianne couldn’t get a hold of her husband, who’s the bishop. He wasn’t answering his cell phone. He was driving around visiting people and checking on things. Part of the church was condemned and he was dealing with that and helping wherever he could. I love Robert and his earnest goodness so it warms my heart to picture him in that setting.

My other dear friend and college roommate, Erin, called to check on my family and later in the day I heard from Ilene Stubbs, who moved from here to Utah last year. She remembered my family was from Wells and wondered how they were. My sisters-in-law contacted me and wondered how everything was.

I couldn’t help it. I felt loved. My heart was nearly 1000 miles away all day in a little beat up town in rural Nevada but my friends were right there with me.

Yesterday the Relief Society presidency called my dad (who is grateful for his recent release as bishop, I’m guessing) and asked him to make a roast. They were feeding people last night. Along with others, they fed 500 (at the elementary school because the high school gym is condemned as well). Most people had utilities restored by then I think but they needed to be together. Needed to hear each other’s stories and support each other. It’s what small towns do best.

So, Tom and Louise, I guess if God said, “You have to live THERE,” it would be OK with me.


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