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They’re now retired teachers, with more than 60 years of combined classroom experience in La Crescent, Minn.
Early Sunday, flooding took them back to the simple times of their early marriage.
“We’re going to start over, and we’re going to do it
together,” Sharon, 64, said Wednesday. “This is us going back to our college days.”
A “tidal wave of mud” crashed down the bluff early Sunday morning, destroying the couple’s three-story bluffside house, a lifetime of memories and possessions inside, their two cars and their boat.
“We lost all our stuff,” Sharon said, “but not the stuff that counts.”
They’re alive with only bumps and bruises, and so is their 9-year-old grandson, Austin Ranney of Onalaska, Wis., who was asleep on the second floor when the house collapsed about 1:20 a.m. Sunday.
Like many flood victims, none of what was lost was covered by insurance. The house was paid off, with the couple planning to bequeath it to their kids, and insured extensively. They even had a rider for earthquakes — just in case the long-dormant faultlines along the Mississippi River should break.
But the policy doesn’t cover damage by a landslide.
“They have nothing,” said daughter Dawn Ranney of Onalaska. “They lost their entire life and savings.”
Lynn, 66, watched the house fall from the neighbor’s yard, where he was helping clear mud rushing into the basement. His wife and grandson were asleep inside.
“Help! help!” Austin screamed minutes later. He had crashed three stories down, making a safe landing on his mattress.
“I thought I was going to die,” Ranney said Wednesday.
“I started saying my prayers for Grandma.”
The amazing rescue that followed has become perhaps the best-known story of the flood recovery, retold on ABC News, “Nightline,” “Good Morning America” and CNN. They said they’ve hardly had a chance to see the news segments, but have been inundated with phone calls from family and friends.
Sharon insisted her husband was the hero — “he saved my life and my grandson’s life,” she said — but all played key roles in finding each other amid the heap of broken glass, shattered beams and mud.
“It was God at work,” Sharon said. “It was not our time to go.”
They’re staying at their daughter’s house in Onalaska and sorting through recovered belongings piled in her garage. The details of their new life are fuzzy, but they said they’re determined to clear them up as time passes.
“We’ll move on,” Sharon said. “I just don’t know how we’re going to pay for it.”
Benefit for PARTINGTONS
Curves of La Crescent, Minn., 309 N. Chestnut St., will sponsor two silent auctions in the coming weeks as a benefit for Sharon and Lynn Partington, long-time teachers in La Crescent schools, whose home was destroyed by a mudslide Sunday.
The auctions run from Aug. 27 to Sept. 15 and Sept. 16 to 28. People can drop off donated items or money in the lobby and are welcome to bid on items as well. For more information, call Teresa Skiles at (507) 895-5700.
To see Sharon Partington explain the dramatic rescue at the scene,
To see an ABC News feature on the family, click here.
Dan Simmons can be reached at (608) 791-8217 or dsimmons@lacrossetribune.com.
