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N.M. family hosts 44 strandees who leave as pals
Motorists mired in drifts find their way to small ranch house
By Electa Draper
Denver Post Staff Writer
It was the kind of holiday gathering only Mother Nature could pull together - and only with considerable help from the Glover family.
About 40 miles west of Clayton on New Mexico's lonely northeastern plains, a blizzard introduced 44 motorists stranded on U.S. 56 to the Glovers on Friday afternoon.
For two nights, the Glovers' small adobe ranch house - three bedrooms, one bathroom - sheltered the assorted 44 strangers, ages 4 to 70-something.
"The saving grace was an Affiliated Food truck that had ended up in a drift," Christine Glover said. "It was full and on its way to four different grocery stores."
One Glover guest, a heart-transplant patient who had stayed well but was running low on vital medication, was evacuated by helicopter early Sunday. By New Year's Eve, the guest list had dwindled to 14.
And by then, the Glovers had a newfound appreciation for their rural plumbing.
"Everyone was very courteous with the bathroom," Glover said.
The snow began falling Thursday night, and it kept blowing through until late Saturday.
Christine and Randy Glover had no idea Friday morning that distressed travelers were nearby. They were talking to each other on handheld radios when they intercepted a radio conversation between two cars that had been traveling together before the storm forced them to stop.
"You could hear them, but you couldn't see them," said Christine, 34. "They were only about 150 yards from our house. They didn't even know there was a house behind the big trees. They couldn't see the barn. It was pretty much a whiteout."
The Glovers began talking by radio to 25-year-old Clayton Shumaker of Miami, Okla., who explained the situation. A minor accident had blocked the roadway. Traffic had crawled to a halt behind it. Then drifting snow trapped everyone.
"We continued to talk to them over the course of two or three hours," Christine said. "They thought the line of cars would get unstuck and continue on."
But it quickly became clear that there was nowhere for anyone to go. The Glovers tried to give the Shumakers directions to their home, but the only observable landmarks were white shapes near other white shapes.
"We finally figured out where they were. Clayton got his family settled in and asked if he could tell everybody else," Christine Glover said. "He got his goggles on and went back out to find more."
The Glover family didn't hesitate to welcome everyone, even as the house got more and more crowded. The closest neighbors were five miles away.
"It was just flat a need that needed to be met," said Randy Glover, 39, Christine's husband. "These people weren't here by choice."
Their new guests were parceled out among three beds, a recliner, the sofa and floors. Randy Glover slept on the kitchen linoleum.
"When we were all bedded down, it was sometimes hard to find a path to walk," Christine Glover said.
And it didn't take long for the gathering to go through Christine's two pots of chili. The Affiliated truck driver got the company's permission to break the seal on his trailer.
Debbie Shumaker, Clayton's mother, said the experience, while initially frightening, ended up being quite possibly "the most awesome" of her life.
"The Glovers are fabulous people," she says. "It was just a good group of people."
There was no whining, no tears, no grumbling. A little loud snoring, perhaps, but that was it.
Lance Glover, 9, and little sister Linzie, 3, thought the blizzard and their guests were "so much fun."
"We laughed, and we played dominos and cards," Christine Glover said. "The mood of the group was very loving. We told stories. We got to know each other. We met some lifelong friends."
When the roads became passable Sunday, many guests were eager to be on their way, but some lingered until Monday.
"We kind of missed them all when they left," Christine Glover said. "I'm having kind of an empty-nest thing. I've been waiting my whole life to get a chance to help people like that."
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