- April 24, 2024
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Betty Carty of Edgewater picked up her hearing aids from the store on Wednesday, Sept. 6, before heading north, away from Hurricane Irma.
“As soon as we got her hearing aid we took off,” her husband Earl Carty said. “We can always replace our house and furniture, but we can’t replace our family.”
It took them two days to get to Virginia, but it was worth it to the couple. They have family in Fredericksburg and Alexandria.
“We have another granddaughter in Texas – Houston,” Earl Carty said. “She is alright and safe.”
I met the Cartys having breakfast at the Best Western in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Seating her husband next to a window, Betty proceeded to fill a plate of his favorite foods from the buffet-style restaurant.
The hotel is filled with an interesting mix of people. There’s a girls soccer team from Washington College in Maryland, who will play Mary Washington College, in Fredericksburg, this afternoon, a family group of eight couples, with children, headed to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, who had planned a vacation, and those of us from the “Sunshine” state waiting to go home.
The Cartys moved to Florida from New Jersey 20 years ago. Despite natural disasters like hurricanes, Earl Carty said Florida will continue to be their home.
Married 38 years, the couple barely looks at the wall-mounted large screen TV tuned into the Weather Channel. They talk over breakfast as I am sure they do at home. Where they are doesn’t matter, as long as they are together.
After breakfast, the Cartys stopped by the front desk to extend their stay another day.
“We don’t want to be going home, especially over that long bridge in South Carolina, (Lake Marion), if the storm is there,” Earl Carty said.
