Harvey's Hope

Harvey Nelson, 88, of Cedar Rapids will celebrate his first birthday without his wife, Clairbel, on Nov. 8. If you read my Ramblin' column in today's Gazette you learned she died June 10, a day before the flood chased Harvey from their home on Ellis Boulevard NW along the bank of the Cedar River. It was the third time in Harvey's life that floodwaters hit the home hard -- in 1929, 1961 and 2008.

Some people might also wonder about the flood of 1993, since that, too, was devastating around Eastern Iowa. For Harvey, though, it was a drop in the bucket to the others. His home, once Nelson's Grocery operated by his parents, Axel and Anna Nelson, only had 9 inches of water in the basement.

"That was no flood as far as we were concerned," Harvey said. "It didn't even take out the furnace burner."

Because my Gazette story was about the house and its flooding, I didn't have room to talk much about Harvey and his life. He was featured in a Gazette Neighbors story on March 14, 1990, titled "What Hath Harvey Nelson wrought" about the intricate wrought iron decorative work he made in his own shop. Much of it still graces his flood damaged home.

As Harvey grew up he worked hard, helping his parents operate their store.

"If my folks wanted to go to a movie or something, when I was 10 years old, we'd take care of the store," Harvey recalled about himself and older brother Allan. "When you went to slice off lunch meat with a knife by hand, that was a chore for a 10-year-old boy."

Harvey remembered shoveling coal into the furnace to keep the store warm, later replacing it with an updated one.

He graduated from Roosevelt High School in 1938 but didn't joined the Armed Forces because he had some heart trouble. He worked at Century Engineering for a while, then had his own shop before finally working at Metal Crafters from 1946 until his retirement in 1977.

At Metal Crafters, Harvey always seemed to pick up the odd and challenging jobs. For instance, he made the aluminum rails for the bridges that cross the Cedar River over First Avenue, Second Avenue and Third Avenue in Cedar Rapids. He joked, "My fingerprints are on every piece of the rail down there."

Harvey also built the curved metal staircase at Hancher Auditorium in Iowa City and the stairs that grace the entryway to The Gazette. But those don't come close to the most unusual metal item Harvey crafted.

"About the smallest project I made was a skull holder for a brain surgeon," Harvey said. It was about a foot long, 8 to 10 inches wide and 10 to 12 inches high. It held the skull perfectly still while a hole could be drilled into it for surgery.

Of all of his life's twists and turns, Harvey wishes this latest one wouldn't have happened. Imagine losing your wife of almost 68 years, then losing the home you first moved into 81 years earlier.

But Harvey remains optimist. "I was very satisfied with FEMA," he said, after receiving money from the governmental agency to help recoup damage and the $15,000 he'd recently put into remodeling his home. He doesn't think much of the brouhaha over Mayor Kay Halloran's sleeping during council meetings -- "I'd fall asleep if I worked that hard," he said.

The flood, Harvey said, is just one of those things.

"I don't think you'll see another one like it. I won't. But, then again, you could see one next year. But you shouldn't blame anyone for Mother Nature."