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This oak tree measuring 20 inches in diameter fell on the bedroom where Martha Wheeler was sleeping; there was neither storm nor wind at the time. (Contributed photo)
Martha Wheeler sets her alarm clock for 6 a.m. on weekdays so she can wake up and get ready for work. On Friday, July 7, however, she got up before it went off.
“I was asleep in the bed, and the headboard is next to that wall where the tree is just a few feet away,” she said. “It crashed across the house, and I called it a rude awakening — I didn’t know I could get out of that bed that fast from being sound asleep. I ran as fast as I could; I didn’t know I could move that fast. It felt like the sky was falling!”
The huge oak tree — 20 inches in diameter — fell onto her bedroom roof when there was neither storm nor wind. Wheeler, 89, was asked her first impression.
“I knew right away it was a tree and I said, ‘Oh, my God! Oh, my God!’” she replied. “I grabbed my phone from under my pillow where I keep it at nighttime on the charger, and dashed around the corner to the bathroom. I didn’t even get to my slippers! I don’t normally walk barefoot, but I rushed around the corner and didn’t even get any cuts on my feet. So I was not injured.”
Wheeler said the ceiling was “coming down” around her, but a big piece of sheetrock stopped short of the bed.
“I thought, gosh, if that had fallen it would have hit my head,” she shared, adding the room filled with SheetrockTM dust and pieces of insulation that had been ripped apart. “I was worried about asbestos, but (was told) it has a different look. Fortunately, I didn’t even get scratched.”
After calling 911 and then her landlord, Wheeler looked around.
“There was some damage to the furniture,” she said, and a bedroom across the hallway was damaged extensively since it also was aligned with the tree’s fall.
“It looked like it was worse than the one where I was sleeping,” she said of the other bedroom. “I told my granddaughter, ‘You should see the bed where you usually sleep when you’re here.’ It was covered with all that mess.”
Ironically, her alarm clock went off just moments after the tree crashed into the house. Wheeler has moved while the home is being repaired.