The fire

My bedroom
Liz's bedroom
Kitchen
Bathroom Picture from Dispatch (top floor far left)
Front window
Living room
Dining room
My bedroom

15 years ago?? That doesn't seem possible. August 15, 1993. I will never, ever, forget that day or the days following. Liz and I were living together in an apartment in Grandview and we had made plans to move into a townhouse the first of Sept. I decided to go see a friend in Minneapolis-I left on the 12th-it was kind of a spontaneous trip for me because I had only made the arrangements and plane reservation the week before. I was planning on coming home on Sunday the 15th. So, the phone rings Sunday morning. It's Julie, Liz's friend. I'm thinking why the hell is Julie calling me here in Minneapolis? My heart starts pounding. She let me know right off the bat that everyone was o.k. but that there was a fire in our apartment building and things look pretty bad. They were going to be allowed up (we lived on the top floor) for a few minutes to grab what they could (they ended up with some of our clothes-there is news footage of them throwing them out the window since they had such little time to be inside). I was in shock and sobbing-I remember the only thing I asked her was if my photo albums made it! Believe it or not, some survived-damaged but they could be dried out. So, I flew home a few hours later and although my car was at the airport, my parents met me there. I immediately started to cry when I saw them and collapsed in my dad's arms. Anyhow, I wanted to see the building right away so my dad drove me in my car and I couldn't believe what I saw. We lived in the first apartment in front of our building-the fire started in a laundry room in the middle of the 2nd floor, shot up to the roof and moved forward so our apartment was destroyed-the roof had collapsed. These pictures are from two days later when we went up with the insurance adjuster-that was the last time we were allowed in. You can click on the picture to make it bigger and see more detail. It's funny but the ceiling to my walk-in closet didn't collapse so most of my clothes were salvageable (most of my work clothes were dry clean only so we had to get very expensive cleaning done), most of my photos that were in there as well as my special letters, cards, etc.-all the things I would of wanted. I couldn't believe that my "treasures" were o.k. I was really sad though about losing the cuckoo clock I had bought in Germany in '89.

We soon learned how generous and giving people are. It turned out that our church knew about the fire the day it happened and took up a collection for us. People gave us household items along with money, including both our offices. Mine actually had a housewarming party for me. My boss (who I wasn't a big fan of) actually gave me a week off w/pay and he didn't even count it as vacation. It was overwhelming and it was as a result of this experience that I learned how to accept help-that came in handy after Evan was born! I'll never forget being at the laundromat the next day and having our pastor walk in-he had tracked us down. He had been on vacation and had just got home but wanted to come see how we were.

Needless to say, I have a bit of a fear about fire now! I really can't enjoy fires in our fireplace.

Lots of little strange things happened prior to the fire:

1. Although my friend's phone number was in my address book at our apartment, I felt compelled to give it to Liz anyhow-she then put it in her purse. They would not have been able to get ahold of me before I boarded my plane without it because his number was unlisted. I am so glad I knew what I was coming home to. Hard to believe but we didn't have cell phones way back then!

2. I drove myself to the airport. Usually I would not have done that-I always just had someone take me. My car would have been destroyed in the parking lot.

3. Liz went to a party Saturday night and ended up staying over at her friend's house-she did not plan on doing that so she wasn't there nor was her car. They happened to see our apartment in flames on the news Sunday morning! We were told the firemen busted our door down because they thought we were in there-the apartment manager was certain we'd be in there and he made sure they looked for us. I can't even imagine what it would of been like to have been there and watched everything we own go up in flames. It was traumatic enough to witness the aftermath. We were lucky too in that we had our purses and I had some cosmetic items, my camera AND my contacts-thank God!

4. Our cat Murphy had been living "illegally" with us since we got her in Jan. '92 and just a few weeks before the fire, we were found out. She went to live w/Mom and Dad until our move. I would of been heartsick if she would have been in the fire.

I definitely think God was at work!

Come Friday, I will be enjoying myself with Liz, Cathy and my cousin Sue up in Buffalo. We will no doubt be drinking, eating and laughing alot-a great way to acknowledge this particular anniversary!