House fire

Enduring a house fire is one of the most traumatic things a person can experience.  This is a close second to the loss of a child.  Having experienced
both, I can attest to the fact that both are life altering, extemely emotional, painful experiences no one should have to go through.

Our house fire happened in the very early hours of a mid-June day.  A lightning strike 200 feet from our home enabled the lightning to travel underground into our home.  Not knowing the cause for several hours left us wondering what happened, as we watched firefighters disappear into the thick cloud of smoke that had engulfed our home.

While everyone got out safe, it was with only the clothes on our back.  What wasn't destroyed by fire, was destroyed by smoke and water.  Our precious life's memories were gone.  Our children's baby shoes, their memories from their childhood, items that were passed down from great grandparents and deceased family members, items that were treasured during our lifetime...gone.

People say, "don't worry, everything can be replaced" or "look at it this way, you get all new things". (I equate that to when people told me after the loss of my son, "don't worry, you can have more children".  That may be true, but it will NOT take the place of my son that died.) While some of that is true, it's not always the case.  Furniture, clothes, electronics and the house itself CAN be replaced.  Pictures, memories and family heirlooms cannot.  We didn't think of that rationale until we had to go through every smoke or water damaged item in our home, that we had to trash. I cried as I had to throw away my children's baby shoes that I had kept for two decades.


Everytime I walked through what was left of our home, all I could do was cry.  The memories of the night before we went to bed, not knowing what the early morning would hold.  My husband's lunchbox was sitting on the counter, ready for him to take to work.  The coffepot sat nearby waiting for it's designated time to turn on automatically, to begin brewing.  Our dogs were sleeping in the garage, probably dreaming of barking at the dogs next door.  Our cat was snuggled in her usual place, in bed next to my son.

Standing outside in a thunderstorm watching strangers put their lives on the line to save and/or protect our home gave me a new appreciation of firefighters.  They went into our smoke-filled home, not knowing if they would walk out alive.  The smoke was so intense, we choked as we stood 200 feet away.  The ambulance waited nearby in the event of injuries.  One firefighter had to be transported to the hospital for smoke inhalation.

The process of extinguishing the fire, determining the cause of fire and the firefighters returning to check for hotspots took a matter of several hours. In those several hours of our lives, our entire lifetime of memories would be destroyed forever.  The fire took an emotional toll on all of our lives.  But that would only be the beginning of rebuilding our lives and the nightmare of dealing with what was to follow.