Earthquake — Milly Lee

This morning the earth shook
and threw us from our beds.
We were not hurt, just stunned.
Drawers spilled, dishes crashed,
pots and pans clanged as
they fell.
Ancestral portraits flew off
the walls.

Milly Lee's mother was eight years old in 1906, when San Francisco was shaken by a powerful earthquake. Buildings fell, fires flared, and the city burned for several days.

This is the stirring story of one Chinese American family who had to leave their home in Chinatown on that early morning to join hundreds of other refugees making their way to safety.