Fires...

While we were settling into our very comfortable home on August 21st after a nice vacation, a dear family member lost their home to fire.

I made contact a few years ago with BJ Fisch. I posted on this Blog about my mother and where she grew up. I included a map with markings of where her home was and where she went to school. BJ came across this and sent me an eMail asking if we might be related. It turns out that BJ is the son of my cousin Burton. Sue, Jean and Burton are Uncle Clifford and Aunt Billie's children. Uncle Clifford is my mother's brother. Yes, BJ and I were related and are actually very close relations. Claude and I moved away from Louisiana when I was 20 years old. I had lost contact with these three cousins and was very excited to have a connection with them again. We are now friends on Facebook and can keep up with each other. 

BJ and Sheramie married and had twins a little over a year ago. On August 21st, their home burned to the ground. They lost everything. They were all safe and well. But all their belongings and the comforts they enjoyed in life were gone. The mementos and things you hold dear were gone. They would need to begin again. I contacted Jean and was able to send a donation from Claude and me to help them get started again. She was kind enough to help me with that. Then on August 24th Sheramie posted a picture of the marriage license. It was singed all around the outside but it was clearly their marriage license. It survived the fire when the things they had in a fireproof safe did not. Amazing!

I sent a message to my sisters and shared this experience in case they would also like to help a little financially with this fire as these two great young people rebuild. 

Imagine my surprise when my sister, Junie, let us know that on August 30th at 1:30am she and her hubby, Steve, were awakened and told to evacuate their home immediately. There was a raging fire on the hill above their home and they were not safe. They went to a hotel with Junie in her bathrobe. Junie and Steve live in Bountiful, Utah. Their home is the last row of homes on this steep hill. There is a vacant lot between them and their neighbors as you down the hill. Turns out the fire made it to their back yard and burned the empty lot next to their home. It completely destroyed the home two homes down from their neighbor below them. They kept firemen pouring water on their property all night long to keep it from burning. They managed to sneak back into their home before people were really allowed. Firemen found bags of mulch along the side of their home and removed them. For the next day or two the firemen were constantly checking for hot spots on the hill. After they were really allowed to return, the news reporters came to their home and took a report from Steve about the event. Fortunately Junie and Steve were blessed with only mild smoke damage to their home. This is amazing given the circumstances.

These mountains need the vegetation so that after the winter snows, when that snow melts and you have spring rains, the mountain doesn't turn into a mud slide. This is a very real possibility and has happened on more than one occasion. Junie and Steve were doubly blessed when the youth in their ward (congregation) came and placed sand bags to keep the run off of any water from starting this so that vegetation can begin to grow again.

How grateful I am that these two families are safe and can recover from this devastation. Miracles do happen even when tragic events occur. Richly blessed. Richly blessed.