Dear Readers:
As I’m currently working on a couple of larger stories,
I’m taking spare time
to go back in time
with others recalling former times.
The headline of this article is no clickbait. Click below and see for yourself.
From just the handful of life stories I captured when traveling Alaska in 2020, we heard the extreme, the tragic, and the wholesome & lighthearted. And given our new era of short form social media video, these (and many of my interviews from over the years) are now granted second life with these “highlight reels” so to speak, these remarkable testimonies and personalities.
I’ve linked several of these videos below. Enjoy flipping through the variety of life story highlights.
But first, let me spell out one of the most extraordinary of them all…
The Earthquake Survivor
I met then-90-year-old Bonnie Carriker outside Fairbanks. Sitting in her office, she recalled her experience being one of the people nearest to the epicenter of the most severe US earthquake in history (in terms of magnitude). Back in 1964, in the small coastal town of Valdez, Alaska, Bonnie’s husband was even nearer. He and several coworkers on the docks met a uniquely terrifying fate when the earth opened beneath them, plummeting into its depths.
The disaster was biblical in scope.
Ironically, this 9.2 earthquake occurred on Good Friday of that year.
Bonnie and her suddenly-fatherless two small children had to reach down deep within themselves for the strength to endure. In our interview, Bonnie credited her faith.
This irked one viewer.
“Where was God when the earthquake took her husband?” someone countered in the YouTube comments.
Indeed, a 3-minute video can speak to a lot: history, natural disasters, enduring a tragedy, faith, and even theology.
While this new trend of shortform videos is sometimes criticized for abbreviating longer works and enabling people’s limited attention spans, I’m grateful Bonnie’s and others’ worthy stories I’ve captured are finding new life on various platforms through these videos.
Here’s Ruth, another older woman, but on the other side of the country—Chattanooga, Tennessee—speaking about segregation, poverty, and the raw nature of life during her childhood:
Bonnie has since gone to be with her husband taken by the earthquake. When revisiting this story, I reached out to my family in Alaska who had introduced me to her, and I learned she passed away about 2 1/2 years ago.
Almost 60 years of life following that singular disaster, and Bonnie lived them faithfully. When visiting, I stayed with that relative employed at the Christian radio station Bonnie provided seed money for decades earlier (money that no financial planner would have ever advised her to lend out). But she felt it was right in her heart at the time, she recalled to me—that God was steering her. As the station grew from that point on, so did Bonnie’s position within, seeing her as President of the thriving KNJP radio at the time of our interview.
RIP, Bonnie.
Enjoy more short stories below, everyone.
And, if you’d like to follow me on the other platforms where I'm sharing these videos, here you go: Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, X.
-Brandon