Thursday, May 20, 2010

Imagine

Imagine this for a moment. It's early in the morning. You wake up, but don't quite recognize your surroundings. You walk into the bathroom to take a shower, but when you step out afterwards, you have no towels to dry off with. Your toothbrush and basic toiletries are also missing. You put on the shirt you wore the night before and head to the kitchen for a bowl of cereal. But when you open the cupboards, you can't find any dishes. And no silverware in the drawer. Or any cereal, for that matter. Instead you opt for scrambled eggs, but can't find a pan anywhere. Which doesn't matter, as there's no eggs in the fridge. Or milk. Or OJ. In a daze, you head to the living room to check your email. But there's no furniture. Or computer. You look around, and notice that the walls are bare. No pictures. No artwork. You decide to watch the morning news. But there's no TV. And it dawns on you that you can't read a book, because there are none to be found. You go back to the bedroom and put on the rest of your clothes from last night. Then it dawns on you that you've been awake half the night, unable to sleep. And then reality hits...

Does this sound like the beginnings of a bad novel or what? Well, it's happening in real life, right now. I mentioned on my HNT that Phain's apartment burned to the ground. It happened early last night. She has lost everything. Neither her nor her kids were at home when the fire broke out, so there was no chance for an heroic attempt to save anything. No pictures of the kids, parents, grandparents... No heirlooms. No clothes. No valuables. No toys. Still don't know if the cat made it. Everything gone. Wrap your mind around that for a minute and what that really means... Not damaged in a flood. Or some things stolen. Everything but the clothes on their backs is G-O-N-E. Burned. A pile of ashes. Non-existent.

Except the iPhone. How do I know she was awake all night? We texted for a bit, and it was well past 1AM my time. And she's on the east coast. At that point she was still in that suspended place between disbelief, grief, and exhaustion. She just needed to talk (not sure why she just didn't call, other than I would have kept her up for another hour or so...).

Based on what I've read on her FB, she's got a huge church family rallied around her. A generous outpouring of food and clothing donations has already come in. People have already offered furniture. No place to put any of it yet, but she's working on it. As she wrote, she feels quite blessed, and hasn't felt any despair. She's confident that God is going to take care of things. She's staying with her best friend, and her kids are staying with their father (one of those times that joint custody is a real blessing). They at least have some stuff over there, including clothes and "things".

Many of us were friends with Phain when she was HNTing. And even after she quit. I'm not sure what I'm going to do, but I have to organize something. While her short-term needs are being taken care of, it's going to take months to re-stock an apartment to its previous condition. I'm thinking of some sort of PayPal thing, and buying gift cards for her. I don't know. Any ideas that you might have--I'd love to hear them. I'll be calling her over the weekend to see what we can do for her. I have no doubt that her friends in the church will be taking good care of her, but I hate feeling helpless from afar. I hope that you do too, and would be willing to fork out a few bucks to help her out. Some of you more than others--you know who you are...

I leave you with pictures from the fire, and this morning's aftermath. Pictures of the fire from someone I assume was a neighbor, or possible tenant. The aftermath pictures (click 'em to big 'em) were taken by her daughter...




9 comments:

TUG said...

Well written. I think you got the point across very well.

I'll be keeping an eye out for what you decide. You can count on me doing what I can.

How old are her kids?

Hopelessly In Love said...

That has to be the worse feeling in the world... how sad.

Being part of a very active caring church community I know they will do whatever to help her but, you replace the photos and heirlooms.

If you set something up we'd be happy to contribute as well. A caring community stretched worldwide!

Thanks for keeping us posted.

Mark & Jen

MichaelRyerson said...

Please keep us posted on their situation and how we might send something their way. Thanks.

Chapter Two said...

amazing .... seriously

like my worse nightmare come true

Joanna Cake said...

Wow, the incredible power of the flame and the extraordinary devastation it can leave behind. My heart goes out to Phain and the other occupants. It must have been quite terrifying. Then, after the adrenalin rush comes the huge down... and trying to deal with that without your roots must be extremely tough x

L0nestar5 said...

Not finding OJ in your apartment is supposed to be a good thing.

OK...serious now.
The best thing to do is to treat it like a fresh start.
An aquaintance had a similar issue.
Lost everything in a fire that started in her daughter's bedroom. They came out OK. Lots of people came out of the woodwork and helped.
They are perfectly fine now.

Mr M

Phain said...

Rascal...

heelsnstocking said...

wow cant imagine it at all. tough for all of them, at least it sounds like she is surrounded by good people and things like that are priceless and we have to be thankful nobody died (fingers crossed for the cat)

Going Cerebral said...

i remember a story from the tucson area, of a family whose house burst into flames in the middle of the night. all made it out safely. one of the neighbors caught sight of the 5yo crying in the street as the fire department tried to contain the blaze. they expressed their despair over the loss of the child's home, to which the child replied that what burned was merely their house...his home was still intact and as loving and fine as ever.


I know NOTHING about her, but if she's interested, I'll be happy to do a painting for her. Though my results may not be to her taste, and I'm not necessarily "good" but at least it's a heartfelt offer. :) My family started over when I was a wee-thing...just what we could carry with us on the airplane; and again later, what we could carry in a J-body station wagon on the road for ten days. It's the blank walls that can really start driving you crazy (or the bizarre wallpaper if you've ever read The Yellow Wallpaper).

MY gratitude to her community for stepping up. That's what communities are for! ;)