My first closing as an agent (I’ve been to many as a seller/buyer) was initially scheduled for 9:30 am on Thursday, May 22nd. It got pushed to noon to give time for documents to get to the title company. No big deal except it meant that my employing broker wouldn’t be there to hold my hand. 9:30 worked for him but noon didn’t. My husband, also an agent, was unavailable as well – out of town for the day, prowling around Estes Park. I was flying solo.

Anyway, I headed north with my buyer around 11:00 so that we could take that last walk of the property. The skies were dark and full of fabulous Colorado clouds. It started raining about ten minutes into our trek north up I-25. Leaving Longmont, we were headed for Windsor and beautiful Water Valley. We headed east on Hwy 34 and turned north on CR 17. Pretty soon, there it was – a construction sign (fixture to Colorado travel). We were forced to turn back south to 34. The rain was serious – hail starting to bruise the car.

We ventured back toward I-25 as cars all around us were pulling over. “Would you like me to stop for a minute?” I asked, prayed. “Let’s just keep going. We’ll take it slow,” he said. And really what good would it have done to sit there and get completely pummeled? As we headed west, conditions improved.

We made our way into Windsor, I would estimate, about four minutes after the tornado made its exit. The streets were empty save a carpet of stripped leaves and golf ball sized hail. It was so quiet. We ventured to the property to assess the damage: no power, one broken window was all we could see.

The seller’s agent had the back window shattered out of his car probably about the time the title folks were sprinting for the bathroom - a gargantuan twister carving its way across the lake right outside their windows.

Cell phones somehow still getting bars, I connected with the closing agent. Rattled, she managed to offer “We have no power, but we have lots of windows” (you know, for light). “Did we still want to come over?” … Hail battered cars, a fire truck, and an ambulance crowded the lot of the title company. But we got a great parking spot right out front.

My first closing. When I left home that morning I was nervous. You might even say scared. Would I get it right? And then the storm … and the ensuing circle of tenacity and support around a closing table in Windsor. Thank you Scott, Eric, Shawn, Randy and Angela. Closings aren’t scary.