Due to concerns over the potential devastating impact of Hurricane “Milton,” a woman in Illinois, United States, went to great lengths to ensure the safety of her 93-year-old grandmother. Jennifer Seaman, 40 years old, and her 66-year-old mother, Sue Schaffnit, embarked on a nearly 4,000-kilometer round trip journey, totaling 54 hours of driving, to bring her grandmother back home from a nursing home in Florida.
On the evening of October 6, Seaman and Schaffnit set off from Peoria, Illinois at 10 p.m., passing through Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia, covering a distance of 1,210 miles (approximately 1,950 kilometers), and arrived in Venice, Florida on the evening of October 7.
“As of around 9 p.m. on the 6th, the situation was getting worse, and I kept in touch with my mother,” full-time mom Seaman told SWNS news agency. “We kept checking for flight information, but all tickets were sold out.”
With no other options, Seaman first rushed to her mother’s house, and within five minutes, they made the decision to drive themselves due to the urgency of the situation.
“We didn’t have time to pack our belongings, we didn’t even have time to change clothes,” Seaman said.
The two of them hit the road urgently at 10 p.m. and drove continuously for 20 hours, eventually reaching Venice, Florida.
Mother and daughter spent only 30 minutes at the nursing home to pack the elderly woman’s belongings.
Although the staff at the nursing home had arranged an onsite shelter and encouraged residents to stay, Seaman and her mother were worried. They did not want to see their grandmother “dying alone without family support” in case of any unfortunate event such as the hurricane intensifying and causing casualties.
At 7:30 p.m. on the 7th, the three of them hastily left Venice and soon encountered heavy traffic congestion, traveling only 100 miles in the next six hours.
“The storm became more and more severe after we hit the road,” Seaman said. “The road conditions were very poor at that time because everyone there wanted to evacuate.”
Initially planning to go further and find a hotel to stay, they found most hotels fully booked.
“Throughout the night, we kept contacting hotels, hoping to find a place to rest for a few hours,” Seaman said. “Finally, we found a hotel on the outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia around 11 a.m., checked in, and left around 2 p.m.”
After a grueling 34-hour journey, the three of them safely returned home in Peoria on the early morning of October 9.
Seaman was happy to have personally driven to bring her grandmother back but was unsure how long the elderly woman would stay with the family, as she was anxious to return to the people at the nursing home.
“After arriving here, my grandmother felt a sense of relief. She performed incredibly well throughout the journey, considering her age. It was quite a long journey for someone of her age,” Seaman said. “We are proud to have such a courageous woman as our family matriarch.”