The Fire's Final Chapter

The first thing we did was go to Walgreen’s to get David’s medications. Being a kidney transplant survivor he needed them at once.

When we woke up, in the beginning, we realized what we had lost. Choosing an outfit and shoes, razors, deodorant, robes and pajamas, putting on makeup, making coffee, reading our Bibles and meditation books, filling Mac’s food dish, giving him a treat and sending him to chew on his bone, searching the fridge for breakfast and to put something in the crockpot for dinner were all a memory and impossible the first days until we went to Wal-Mart for the basics.

Mac ate what we did the first few days from the breakfast bar and MacDonald’s. We stayed at the Days Inn until Monday when the Insurance Company put us in the Marriott Suites for six weeks. Then a flea infested apartment with rental furniture, the cheapest thing they could find, until everything could be worked out. But they did pay all the bills for the first three months.

Baxter came in with an eighteen foot dumpster that was filled with our furniture and personal belongings including the washer and dryer we had bought a month before.  

They took some stuff in an attempt to recover them. The only things that really made it were 8 wood pieces including my hope chest when I was little and the kitchen table, both to this day soot stained as a reminder of where we came from, along with some clothes, our dishes and anything glass…the beds, couches, toaster, anything plastic, with a cord or made of material, all gone. The change made it but the jar had melted around it.

We were counting our blessings. No one was hurt and we had amazing insurance. The house was bought at the top of the bubble so we were well insured and the Insurance Company eventually paid in full allowing us to become debt free and buy a new home that is three times bigger with a pool in one of the best neighborhoods in town that was a foreclosure and totally remodeled from the studs out for less than we paid for our charred structure. We have brand new furniture and clothes. Being a year into our marriage when the fire happened we had a mix match of things from our previous marriages and now everything is new just for us.

I realized with most things taken from us that material things don’t really matter. Stuff is nice but it is just stuff. Stuff can be replaced but people cannot. Family is what matters. Relationship is key with God and each other. I also realized nothing is permanent except Christ’s love. At any time things can change on a dime so I live each day as my last because someday I’ll be right. I’m doing my best to live without regret and thank God for every second. He made lemonade.


Blessings!