NEW PARIS — As the Miami Valley prepares for billions of Brood X cicadas to emerge, one New Paris family looks back at the memories they made 17 years ago that they will not get the chance to make again.
The last time the Brood X cicadas emerged from the ground, Blake Hall was just 3 years old. She and her older brother Lee Van Winkle, who was 13 at the time, had a shared love for the outdoors and Brood X cicadas.
“I just remember always being outside, catching cicadas with him,’ Hall said.
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The two did not always play together due to their 10 year age difference, but their mother remembered the time the two would spend catching the insects.
“They would just spend hours out there catching them,” Amy Van Winkle said.
Van Winkle told News Center 7′s Kayla Courvell that Blake and Lee would bring the cicadas into the house. Blake would even eat with the bugs in her high chair.
But as the Brood X begin to emerge after 17 years, Harris and Van Winkle will have to hold on to the memories of catching cicadas with Lee. In 2017, Lee died after using marijuana that he did not know was laced with carfentanyl. He was 25 years old.
Harris honored her brother and their love for cicadas in a tattoo that features a handwritten note from Lee.
While the family said it would be nice for Lee to be able to see the Brood X emerge again, they know he will be watching as the family’s next generation, Harris’ daughter, BentLee, and Lee’s son, Thomas, make their own cicada memories.
“I know Lee is smiling down from heaven. He’s proud of Blake and he’s smiling down that his son and BentLee get to do that together,” Van Winkle said.
Cox Media Group
