Day 9: Back to School

This was my first day back to teaching. The kids had gone back on Wednesday of last week, but I needed a few more days to pull our lives together.  I remember it being pretty emotional. I think the most memorable time of that first day back at work was the students.  All my students were so sweet and understanding. Of course, since I teach science, the concept of how the lightning created the fire was a hot topic (no pun intended).  I recall telling the students what the Arson Investigator had told us that morning…

“Think about lightning hitting a large tree in a forest.  There is naturally water in the trunk and when the lightning hits the water evaporates and then the wood ignites.  Sometimes it causes the tree to actually explode. There is normally a delay in the actual fire of a tree with moisture.  Your wood frame was dry and once the roof was struck, it ignited immediately. We are lucky it didn’t explode. The fire was instantaneous. Your entire roof burned in 8 minutes.”

I am sure I’ve told this part of the story many times over, but it was astonishing to me that it could all happen that quickly.  My students were stunned, as were friends and family upon hearing the Investigator’s explanation.

My co-workers were more than supportive for the whole family. A meal schedule was created and we had meals for an entire month.  I cannot describe how much of a help this was… Especially being that I had no kitchen items. No plates, no cups, no forks or spoons, no Pyrex, no dish towels, no Tupperware. I felt so lost. I couldn’t even pack the kids lunches because not only did we have no lunch boxes, we had no Ziplocs either.  It’s stuff you really don’t think about.  It’s just already in your kitchen as a staple.  So to have meals prepared in dishes I could keep was more than awesome.  Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday a new meal (salad, main dish, side dishes AND desserts) was brought to us. Blessed beyond measure and it only was the beginning… 

Day 6, 7, 8: Holiday Weekend

I was so thankful for this 3-day weekend. Columbus Day. It allowed us to really settle down, figure out what was ahead, and REST.  I remember taking a nap that Saturday.  Sleeping was still very hard for all of us.  We did enjoy the buffet breakfast the hotel offered.  I couldn’t even use the mini-toaster in the hotel room for fear of smelling smoke when the little crumbs fell on the burners.  I know – it seems petty, but that smell was very distinctive and it seemed like it followed us around.  We went back to my in-laws house that afternoon to look through some things that she and my father-in-law had grabbed the afternoon of the fire.  It all smelled so badly.  Most things ended up in the trash or in bags to go to the restoration company.  There were a few frames and such that were already molding so I couldn’t even take the pictures out.  My jewelry box was there but almost every necklace was knotted in ash and insulation.  I tried to pull out the few I could to be cleaned. The smell was everywhere still.

After getting back to the hotel that evening, R pulled out a small bucket and a large envelope from her school bag.  She said the buckets were at every concession stand at the football game the night before and the counselor at her school handed her the envelope on Friday afternoon.  Both FULL of cash and gift cards.  We cried. R was so emotional that day, which made me even more emotional.  This outpouring from the community was simply immeasurable.

Day 5: The PROCESS has begun…

So now we know the house is a “total loss” according to all the insurance people. Totally uninhabitable for lack of a better term. And all personal effects are considered that as well – a total loss.  But this is the day Husband and I walked through the rubble just one more time grabbing what few items we felt like we could clean enough and put in a box as a keepsake.  We gathered a few broken picture frames with melted photos to keep in case we couldn’t find someone that had a copy or digital one. We found a few of the clay figurines the kids had made in their kindergarten classes and wiped the ash away.  There were 2 frames hanging crookedly on the wall downstairs in my bedroom.  I wiped the black soot off and took them with me… pictures of R as a baby.  So as I did that I realized – the baby books.  I walked to the bottom shelf where I had all three lined up next to my pregnancy journal.  Their drenched pages sat under the 8 inches of water in that room.  I held my tears on the edge of my eyelids as the restoration representative asked if I wanted to try to restore them. Yes. I do.

It was Friday and we had checked out of the first hotel because they did not have available rooms for the weekend – some volleyball tournament in the area had precedence.  We picked up the kids from school and went to the new hotel to settle in.  It was so nice to have a little more space.  There was a tiny burner stove area and a refrigerator, as well as a small living space with a couch between the two rooms.  I remember falling asleep on the chair in that room after making another list.  This time – groceries and shoes.

SIDENOTE

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Day 4: Everyone Visits

This was Thursday. The day ALL the insurance adjusters, structural engineers, restoration companies, and even real estate agents showed up to the house.  All three kids were in school, so we made all the appointments during those hours.  I didn't want them there.  It was hard enough for Husband and I to walk around in the debris – physically and emotionally.  This is a clip of what we experienced that day…

Day 3: Phone Calls

Waking up an hour earlier than usual was not fun, but necessary since we were at a hotel on the other side of town away from the kids’ schools. I had emailed the schools the night before to make everyone aware the kids were returning –especially the counselors. R was worried. About her missed schoolwork. About her AP classes. About notes and a project that were burned up. About the dress code at her high school because all she had to wear was her girlfriend’s soccer practice clothes. Her list was ever growing.  F and S were excited and nervous to get back into the swing of things. F was playing football, so his concerns revolved around what he missed at practice over the last two days. S was excited to go back, but uneasy about everyone asking her about the fire. She kept saying she “didn’t know what to say.”
 
R drove herself to school. Husband and I dropped the other 2 off – I walked them in to make sure all was good. Lots of tears when I reached the elementary school. I knew that would happen as that is the school I taught in and spent most of my days over the last 7 yrs. As we left the parking lot I began the phone call list.

• Insurance adjuster for structure of home – make appointment for their visit to the house
• Insurance adjuster for personal belongings – make appointment for separate visit to the house
• Insurance adjuster for the 3 cars – I later found out that there were THREE different people that will be handling that (sigh – of course)
• Hotels with more accommodations –closer to schools (and more bathrooms).
• Call to stop services:
• Water
• Gas
• Electric
• Alarm system
• Pest control
• Landscaper

This was probably not my entire list.  10+ phone calls eats up quite a bit of the day – not to mention I had to pay attention closely on each call because there was account numbers and claim numbers and end of service numbers to write down and remember for future use.  Exhausting.  I can recall saying to myself, “Kim, you have to write a list of Things to do when your house burns down in case someone else needs this.”  I did search the Internet in those weeks following the fire and I did find a few resources. But, by no means was there a lot of support out there (info-wise) for people like us. 

Day 2: Gifts and more gifts

Trying to settle in a bit at the hotel the evening of October 7^th.  It was a Tuesday. We had decided I was not going to work until next week. The kids wanted to go back to school tomorrow and we thought it would be better for them to get back into some normalcy. (Although there was a new normal.)  Our friends had called and texted that they needed to stop by the hotel and drop some things off…  I had no idea what that meant.

            First, dinner.  The first of many, many meals to bless us. Then, the bags, baskets, and envelopes.  I could not ever describe to you the feeling of pure emotion. I was choking back tears as we opened envelopes of prayers, well wishes, love and kindness. Some envelopes were just filled with cash. Some with gift-cards for meals and groceries. Some signed from co-workers, some from parents of students I teach now and some from families I taught years ago. Some cards with scriptures. Some with quotes. All in shock that this could even happen, let alone happen to us.

            One basket in particular that was delivered that first night in the hotel was so incredibly helpful.  If you ever know someone that goes through something like this, this would be the best thing to give him or her.  You may think, “These items are so trivial. So simple!” But that is what made them so incredibly valuable to us right away.  It was a small, black plastic laundry basket. Oval-shaped and not that deep. Inside was nail clippers, white socks of all sizes, shampoo & conditioner, a pair of scissors, a package of pens and pencils, make-up remover, a few pairs of gloves, an umbrella, tweezers, a multi-package of toothbrushes and toothpaste, a steno book, a package of candy, a couple hairbrushes, a trial size can of mousse and hairspray, Chapstick, and a few scarves from the Dollar Tree. There were probably more little things I cannot remember, but those items were the things we used IMMEDIATELY. I remember needing those scissors to cut the tags off the new clothes in some of the bags. Even a huge bag from R’s boyfriend’s mom. She had gone to Target and bought clothes for ALL of us. I could not cry anymore. The tears ran out.  All I could think of was THANK GOD. Thank God for keeping us safe. Thank God for bringing us here. Thank God for all these people caring for us instantly.