15 years ago today we lost our house and everything in it, including my little Yoda, to a horrendous fire. At the time I honestly didn't think I was going to be able to get through this crisis. It was just too much.
We were able to rebuild our home and our lives and start over. Nothing was, or will ever be, the same. I still find myself looking for things that were lost in that fire so many years ago. and having to remind myself that they are gone.
As many of you know, we lost our second home and possessions to another fire just two months short of the tenth anniversary of the first fire. Talk about deja' vu!! It was like living the first fire all over again.
The only difference was when the first house burned I had been at work and didn't get to the house until nothing remained but the charred cinder blocks of the foundation. When the second house caught fire, I was at home and had to stand next door and watch it disappear as it burned.
At this point I really was ready to give up. I did not feel I had the strength to continue to fight. It really was too much.
I still miss so many things that were lost those days-especially from the first fire. Priceless, sentimental items that can never be replaced and it still hurts. I can't pass things down to my children from my childhood. I don't have homemade ornaments to decorate our Christmas tree. The videos we took from the kids childhoods no longer exist. Even simple little treasures like sports trophies the kids earned and yearbooks from school are gone . All we have left are memories of those things.
I didn't think we would be able to get through the first fire, but we have survived two. With the help of God, family, good friends, and total strangers we survived. God works in mysterious ways, for sure, and this has taught me, if nothing else, to not place much value on material possessions, but to put my heart and soul in the people and places that really mattter. We have built another house, and we love it, but it is more than that - we have built another home.
Posts
