The Mourning Wave

61OH26HKcbL.jpg

The Mourning Wave: A Novel of the Great Storm, was released in September. Shortly afterwards, a copy was gifted to me by a friend who knew how much this book would be of interest to me.

William B. Murney, circa 1899. Photo courtesy of Rosenberg Library

William B. Murney, circa 1899.
Photo courtesy of Rosenberg Library

The Mourning Wave was written by Gregory Funderburk, a native Houstonian, former lawyer and, now, a minister at South Main Baptist Church in Houston.

Reportedly, Funderburk had been thinking about the Great Storm of 1900 for decades. As a child, he went to Galveston often with his family on vacations. He remembers staying at a hotel near Gaido’s and The Seawall one night during a terrible rainstorm. He recalls watching the storm and envisioning, even then, what it must have been like to be on the island that fateful night in 1900.

According to Funderburk, thoughts of the Great Storm stayed in his head for years before he set out to write this book.

The Mourning Wave recounts the frightening moments and hours of September 8, 1900, when the most deadly storm in American history made landfall on the beaches of Galveston Island. It tells the story and enormous challenges of three young boys as they struggled to survive the storm that destroyed their home, St. Mary’s Orphan Asylum, and killed all of its other inhabitants.

The surviving orphans were Will Murney, 14; Albert Campbell, 13; and Frank Madera, 12.

The book introduces readers to these and other real-life characters, as well as local and national historic figures on the scene during that time. It relates powerful recollections of the storm survivors — about their own struggles to survive, about their heartbreaks over the thousands of lost souls and about their shock and acceptance of the destruction of their homes, their city and their very ways or life.

At the same time, and importantly, The Mourning Wave offers guidance for anyone facing grief, uncertainty and anxiety in the aftermath of a tragedy. (So timely as our world continues to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.)

The Mourning Wave asks an important question: Can moments of beauty and redemption arise from chaos in a storm-driven world?

Children, nuns and priests on the steps of St. Mary’s Orphan Asylum, circa 1892. Photo courtesy of Rosenberg Library

Children, nuns and priests on the steps of St. Mary’s Orphan Asylum, circa 1892. Photo courtesy of Rosenberg Library