Earthquake Memories : Voices

“The ground’s gone berserk!” From a poem by Michael Paul, Tolchard of Reseda *

“My husband kept telling me if you think these aftershocks are bad, imagine what it was like at 4:31 a.m.”

Sherman Oaks resident Susan L. King, who was in Las Vegas at the time of the earthquake. *

“They interrupted the show to announce an earthquake in Los Angeles, in the . . .SAN . . .FA . . .NAN . . .DO Valley. Are you anywhere near this valley?”

North Hills resident Sandra Jackson recalling a phone call from her sister in England. *

“The Jan. 17 earthquake has changed my life completely. I lost everything that I had worked for. I lost me.”

Karen Vinocor of Sherman Oaks *

“It’s only just recently that I’ve realized what we lost that day. It wasn’t our house, it was our security.”

Barbara Tarlau of Northridge *

“I have truly learned to live one day at a time.”

Penny Gronau of Tarzana *

“I have never experienced such a feeling of helplessness in my 70 years as I did that 40 seconds the ground moved and during the aftershocks.”

Marjorie Bennett of Granada Hills *

“I don’t like the possibility of being ‘wiped out’ by something not of my doing and over which I have no control.”

Jan Wilde of Studio City *

“I never valued life so preciously.”

Richard C. Geiger of Van Nuys *

“Had I not watched with fierce determination the rebuilding of Southern California after the earthquake, I may not have had as much will to recover from my illness.”

Judi Oppenheimer McBroom of Glendale, who was near death a year ago because a recurrenceof breast cancer *

“Love is the most precious gift, and with the bond of love between us and the incredible love and help from our family and friends, we have made it through this year of tragedy and recovery.”

Barbra Miner of Valencia *

“I looked upward and beheld a deep, black velvet moonless sky filled with stunningly beautiful and intense stars.”

Stephen C. Brecht of Woodland Hills *

“I think the earthquake brought out the best and the worst in people.”

Patsy Comer of Reseda *

“Escaping a few minutes later without shoes, jackets or keys, we waited in the parking lot with our neighbors, watching the fires and thinking it was the end of the world. But it wasn’t.”

Linda Frank of Glendale *

“This was no ordinary temblor!”

Selma Glasser of Toluca Lake

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“Every closet and cupboard spewed forth its contents with utter chaos on the floor.”

Rosalyn Robinson of Woodland Hills

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“My husband was screaming, ‘We’re going to die! We’re going to die!’ ”

Linda FieldQ of Studio City

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“My view of the world, and of my own place in it, had changed forever.”

Rhona Blaker of North Hollywood

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“If a fortuneteller had told me on January 1st of 1994 that one year later I would have moved three times and would be living in a tent, I probably would have refused to pay her.”

Rory Lavell of Studio City *

“Be grateful for the things that you have.”

Tyler Turquand of Westlake