Posted on 07/15/2012 3:08:27 PM PDT by Vision
Freeper Viking2002 has been involved in a life altering disaster. Please offer him any prayers and support you may have. I'll let him speak for himself. Please direct your posts to Viking2002.
First email: Our house burned down to a shell around 11 this morning, and it was essentially a total loss - a bad electrical outlet that wasn’t even being used was pegged as the culprit, according to the fire marshall. Most painful of all was losing our ‘kids’, Nigel and Scrat - they were overcome by the rapidity of the disaster and couldn’t get out through their pet door and into the back yard. The EMT’s tried to revive them in the front yard, but they couldn’t overcome the heat and smoke damage to their lungs. Our personal belongings are just that - belongings. Things. They can be replaced; but losing our dogs was a sword through the heart that made me curse God Himself, until the church minister arrived and helped put me at ease.
But I’m currently just waking up from the shell shock, and nowhere near that Kubler-Ross stage of grief yet, so I may need to be institutionalized once I reach that point. I think most of you thought I needed to be medicated, anyway. The Red Cross has stepped up and given us a motel room locally, and family and church from both sides of the marriage have descended upon us to help with the aftermath. My mother, brother-in-law, and sister are currently driving down here from MD and PA for the first time since I relocated here in ‘99. We were able to salvage one laptop with wireless, and we’re sharing it during the off moments we have; I dug two more out of the rubble, both suffering from heat, water, and smoke damage, but think I can cobble together a working unit from the giblets of both, since they the same model and one actually did boot up tonight. The desktop PC’s will probably never boot again, unless the hard drives somehow survived (although the PC next to the ignition source is a heat-twisted black skeleton, and it’s getting last rites presumptively). So, no matter what the outcome with the bank, insurance company, etc., we’re pretty much starting over with just the clothes on our back, and the acrid stink of fate clinging to our skin. But I’ll be out here; it’s just that the Devil handed a fiftyish couple a shared midlife crisis they weren’t expecting. At all.
Second email: This is Eric - we salvaged a laptop to use here in the motel. Our house was totaled. It went up so quickly, it was fully involved and out of control by the time our neighbor called 911. The fire marshal isolated an electrical outlet - one that wasn’t even used - as the point of ignition. A storm had just hit the area, so we’re deeply suspect of a lightning strike. We want to thank everyone - down here and up there - for your prayers. It means the world to us that so many people have lent us support as they have. Everyone down here has been fantastic - the Red Cross, The Christian Center, our church, and our minister, Brother Fran, who’s already crawled through the soot and grime to help recover what he could, Connie’s family, my step-children, their father, the community, even people we’ve never known have shown up with their sleeves rolled up and ready to do whatever they can. We’re overwhelmed by the support we’ve been given by all. At the end of the day, what we lost is replaceable.
Connie and I still have each other - that can’t be replaced. The hardest part was losing our ‘kids’, Nigel and Dixie. The EMT’s tried to resuscitate them, but the heat and smoke was too much for their little Dachshund lungs. It was like losing our own flesh and blood. Harder still was having to take them, wrapped in a blanket, to the animal clinic and say goodbye. I can’t bring myself to think of what they went through, and knowing that they were probably screaming for us in their minds. I would never wish this feeling of anguish on anyone. They’ll receive private cremations and reside next to their big sister Rhubarb, who’s urn the firemen were able to retrieve, and we thank God for that. We’ll rebuild our lives out of what we have left, no matter how much or how little, and we’ll be better people because of it. On a good note, Heidi, Mama Kitty and the kittens (or as I call them all, the ‘kitty litter’ HAR HAR) all made it through the fire. In fact, not only were we able to place for adoption all but the two kittens (Speedy and ‘Noid) we’re keeping with Mama, but Ingrid, Len, and especially Kalli were so taken with the kitten we named Midnight, they adopted her and are taking her home to PA to give Hailey a new little playmate.
Prayers lifted....
You and your wife are in my prayers, brother.
I’m so very sorry .
Prayers to surround you .
Prayers continuing. hang in there, my FRiend.
I haven’t had much of a chance to post lately; but every prayer is appreciated more than you know. To keep this from becoming a vanity post, ping MinuteGal, who has the URL to some cell phone pics of the immediate aftermath. We’re digging out; we’ll climb back up the mountain again. Nobody stops a hard-headed Kraut and his Cherokee squaw easily.
Just saw this ping and read your initial posts. Prayers up!! My condolences for the loss of your family members. Hang tough, my fellow FReeper.
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