As Hurricane Ian bore down on Florida, many residents who decided to stay found themselves unable to leave.

When the water slipped in under the door of their home in Naples, Florida, it was just a sign that it was time to go.

It was around noon on Wednesday, September 28 last year and Darcy Bishop woke up her two brothers who had been resting after lunch. She pulled the wheelchair up to the oldest, Russell Rochow, 66. Her other brother, Todd Rochow, 63, was in his room, changing clothes. He could manage with a walker.

Both men had been born with disabilities, and their mental development was like that of a young child. But they found joy in their surroundings. Russell loved riding the bus and going to parks. Todd liked collecting cans at the beach and playing on the boat in the neighbor, Hance Walters’ home. Bishop, 61, was their lifeline, their little sister who had long felt a duty to keep them safe.

“We’ve got to get going!” she shouted to Todd. She went to open the front door. It would not move. The weight of the water on the other side had shut it tight.

She rushed to try the door to the garage, where Todd’s walker was stored. It, too, was stuck.

That’s when the house the three brothers shared began to flood.

The only way to go was up.

Bishop guided Todd to the stairs, and he grabbed the banister(栏杆). She helped him pull himself slowly up to the top where he waited in a chair.

But stairs were impossible for Russell, who could neither walk nor bend his stiff legs.

Bishop dragged on the belt around Russell’s waist, but he was nearly 77 kilograms. She tried every position possible, switching from pushing to pulling, and managed to get him up a few carpeted steps.

But the water followed.

Bishop called 911 and was told someone would come soon. But out the window she could already see furniture, boats and cars floating by.

I couldn't believe that my father shouted at me and called me a fool! In all my 18 years, I'd never heard him say anything like that to anyone. But then, I had never shouted the words "I hate you!" in his face, either. I guess we were both pretty angry. I had been saving money from my part-time job for three years and now I wanted to use it to buy a car. He wanted me to save it for college expenses.

I knew that we both needed time to cool off. I left him sitting at the kitchen table, ran down the stairs to the driveway, and jumped on my bike. I headed for the road that runs along the river. It's usually pretty quiet there and I've found that it's a good place to go to when l need to think something out. Riding along, I kept thinking over and over, "But it's my money! I earned it!" Little by little, I calmed down. Circling back toward town later, I stopped in the park. I had a drink of water and decided to avoid Dad for the rest of the day.

He must have had the same idea—about avoiding me, that is. He didn't come up to my room to say goodnight, and I didn't go downstairs. I couldn't get to sleep that night. I kept going over our argument in my mind. He felt I didn't really need a car. After all, I could use his anytime I wanted to. In addition, he paid for my driver's insurance and bought all the gas. It's just that all my friends were buying their own cars and I wanted one of my own. I really wanted that car. I finally fell asleep and when I woke up I didn't really change my mind. But I felt a little better.

I guess Dad was feeling a little better, too.

After a moment, I was able to speak.

What a great year we had had! A new baby daughter, a job promotion (晋升) for my husband, and a new home were among what we had received. My husband and I were grateful for them. We wanted no gifts for Christmas, because our cups were running over. So my husband and I decided to teach them to learn to share.

After dinner, we talked about doing something special for someone else at Christmas. Our oldest son said, “Why don’t we find a family who needs help and give them presents?”

All of us were excited about the idea. We didn’t know exactly how we find our “Christmas family”, but we did know we wanted to help. The next morning I made calls to friends who might know of someone in need. That evening at dinner I described the family I had found. The father was a repairman but lost his job two weeks before. He hadn’t landed a new job yet. There were three children in the family. The wife gave birth to a new baby, who was the same age as ours. But unluckily, the baby had been taking many tests as doctors tried to determine why she wasn’t developing properly. They had spent almost all their savings on the treatment, with little for daily necessities. They were in great trouble. Of course, they had little hope of having gifts for Christmas.

“Can we give them some of our clothes?” asked our daughter. We all agreed that her idea was good, and so the children ran to their bedrooms and began sorting out the clothes they had outgrown. But my husband and I knew that clothes were not enough.

On Christmas Eve, my family went for holiday shopping.

Then we were off to deliver Christmas gifts to our special family.