When I was 10, we moved into a new home. I was watching Hopalong Cassidy on TV. He was chasing "rustlers on the range" in a horse race. They set a fire in front of Hoppy's trail to get him off their trail!. The fire grew, as it raged , I could smell smoke. True story. I thought wow, this TV is REAL!! Then there was smoke under the door ...coming into the family room a few feet from me. My Mom came opened the door to look, we ran as the fire was raging. The fire destroyed all but last room in 6 mins. The fire started in garage where most of our stuff was, as we were still moving in.
It was really hard. I went to a family friend, my brothers (they were little) and Mom and Dad another, as they dealt with finding new place. In those days , in our family, no one talked about anything. It was just something you got over, and went forward.
We were really lucky, as my parents had a rental. We had to wait for tenants to vacate for a month. But my Mom said, they were kind enough to move . She gave them the month free. We lived there for a year while our new home was built. No animals or any of injured! My dad refinished the car that had heat from blistered paint (it was outside) and he refinished their bedroom set. Other than that we had nothing. Clothes and such that could be salvaged smelled so bad, you cannot clean them to get stench out.
We moved into the rental with basically nothing. It is a lonely, odd, eerie feeling. Mattresses on floors, no furniture but kitchen set and mattresses!. Embarrassing when you are a kid when friends come over. We didn't even have a couch!. Our Christmas that year we had a huge tree, we covered it in ribbon bows, as that is all we had.
But we were lucky, Parents were able to save, we moved to a great home, and got all new furniture. My parents owned the rental we stayed in, so no mortgage payments.
I know what it is like to loose a home. It is lonely, it is desperate and deeply sad. It is an eerie feeling you just can't shake. You feel cold and alone. You reach for something, and it is not there. Every time you think you have it together, you remember something else you have lost. Yes, it is material stuff, but it is home and what you are used to. Imagine this very minute, you had to leave your home with just the clothes on your back. And then imagine from that moment you can never go back, or have anything you had ever again. Lots of sentimental items are lost, and that is the hardest part.
But you get through it. Life goes on. It does leave lots of little scars and scabs that rip open, over and over your whole life
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