Last night my dad’s house burned down. It was there at seven-thirty in the evening. By eight-thirty it was gone. Destroyed in 39 minutes. No one saw this coming. No one’s sure what caused the fire, at this point. It appears to have started in a bathroom.
All five people who were in the house got out okay, with only their clothes—or in my dad’s case his pajamas—on their backs.
Life is strange, how it plods along, and then—poof!—a puff of smoke and a pile of charcoal is all that’s left of everything you own, as if it was a cruel illusion—which I suppose it is. Physical things create an illusion of permanence in an impermanent life. Love is all that lasts.
I’m still in shock, and I wasn’t even there. It barely affects me except in my heart, because it happened to people I love in a house where I lived as a kid. A house in which I spent good times and bad with people I love. Some of my dad’s things (some once my mom’s), my niece and nephews’ things, and their mother’s things that can never be replaced are gone, and they’re all traumatized. I’m rambling because I really don’t know at this point what to feel or what to say. Blogging is futile and inconsequential, it helps no one, yet I feel compelled to write.
Life can be as fragile as a house built of tinder, filled with things that in the end are meaningless except for their connection to memories, to people we love. Sometimes love is the only glue that holds us together. Love and memories.
I’m grateful for the helpers, and for those they help.
I love you guys, and I’m so glad you’re alive.
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Still rambling . . . the family is already on their way to recovery. Relaxing, letting the adrenaline seep out of their systems. The family dog is safe and has a place to sleep tonight. Dad will have to wait an incredibly long time for new teeth (his dentures were lost in the fire), but he has new keys to his van, thanks to my brother, something to wear, thanks to my sister, and is in good spirits.
The strangest thing is, just yesterday my husband and I read this website with avid interest, and just minutes before we heard about the fire we’d been talking about how an earth dome like that would be more resistant to damage from fire than a conventional wood frame house. Then my sister called with the news.
The problem with wood houses is they are fuel. Aside from the fact that they cost the lives of trees. I wonder why, in our world where we consider earthquake safety essential, we still consider it normal to live in tinderboxes.
I think my next house is going to be something like this.
Very sorry to hear such terrible and shocking news. My aunt and uncle lost their home to a flood once. Losing a home is awfully painful. People sometimes don’t grasp. A home isn’t just the physical structure. The people are ultimately what’s important, though.
Oh, Barbara…such a loss! I’m just thankful everybody got out okay.
The real tragedy is losing all the mementos, the house itself, and the memories are all you have left. Now it’s up to you to keep the memories alive.
So sorry to hear about it.
In the past few weeks I had read The Consolation of Philosophy which points out the transitory nature of happiness from material things. But there is no way to not hurt from the loss of things and places that surround us with meaning and memory. I only hope that what comes to replace home and possessions becomes as filled with good memories as well.
My heart goes out to all of you. And I’m so happy for you that everyone is safe, even the dog.
Cas
OMG! How horrible. So glad that he’s okay though.
Thank you all for your caring and healing words. My dad is actually doing pretty great, considering. It’s a traumatic loss for all of us. Massively inconvenient for those who lived there, frigtening in its suddenness and the need to run for their lives, and emotional for the rest of us. We moved there in 1967 when I was 10 years old. It wasn’t much of a house, just a crackerbox tract home, built as cheaply as possible in the ’50s or ’60s, but there sure was a lot of love there. It’s true we invest a lot of energy into the things around us, so a house we’d known that long holds a lot more than things. I’ve suggested to the family we give the house a funeral. Anyway, thanks again. The family is on the healing path now, it will just take a while for everyone to get back to normal.