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…
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