Most of you know what happened already. I am recording this for myself, but you can read it if you want to. Narratives are fun and easy to write.*
On Friday April 29, around 7pm, my sister in law's house was hit by lightning and burned down. I wasn't home when she called me, I was at my book club meeting in Kansas City. I almost didn't answer, in fact I answered on accident by opening my phone to the keyboard. I think I thought I was gonna text her.
"Uh, hello?"
"My house just burned down. I've lost everything," she immediately replied, obviously crying.
I exclaimed, "Are you serious?"
Every person in the room immediately turned their attention to me.
It was a weird phone call. I will remember it always. She needed a place for her son and mother to go while she finished up with the fire department. I couldn't get a hold of my husband so I called my friend to go knock on our door to tell him what was going on. She then stayed at my house with my kids while my husband went to see what was happening and I made my way back home.
When I arrived home, everyone besides my sister in law (she didn't get here till way after 2am) had just arrived a few minutes before me. I hugged and thanked my friend out on the front walk as she was leaving and I could already smell it. I wasn't even in the house yet and the smell of house fire was so pervasive on my mother in law's and nephew's clothes, I could smell them from outside.
My mother in law was in her pajamas and barefoot. My nephew was only in his underwear with an over sized t-shirt that one of his neighbors had brought out to cover him with. I hugged my mother in law and told her how sorry I was and how thankful I was that she was alright. I asked her what she needed and she said she didn't even know. When she said this, I realized that she had that shell shocked look. She really didn't know what she needed right then and I experienced what felt similar to an adrenaline rush.
I was going to be the one to take care of business here tonight.
I told her she was going to get undressed and shower while I washed her clothes ("sorry, but you
do stink."), I found her a large sheet to wrap up in when she was done. I gathered towels, soap and a toothbrush and showed her into my very dirty master bath. I was mortified by the condition of my shower but she insisted she didn't mind.
I then jumped into action giving my nephew a bath, washing clothes, picking up toys, changing sheets and pillow cases, getting out the air bed, dodging overexcited children as they ran through the house. I was sweating and breathing hard. When that was done, I sat with my mother in law and we talked while the children wandered in one by one and settled themselves down. We talked about how hard it was going to be to replace her clothes, she is a "queen" sized woman. It was well after 10pm. I put the kids to bed.
After midnight, my sister in law called and asked my husband to go inside the trailer with her after the firemen leave. He didn't want to, but we knew she would go in alone, and we didn't want that. It's dangerous, after all. My husband gathered flashlights and even a few of the kid's glow sticks and headed over there. My mother in law and I decided to lay down, but we didn't sleep.
A few hours later, I heard voices downstairs and discovered my husband and sister in law sitting at the table with my mother in law. I gave a huge hug to my sister in law and was pleasantly surprised to see a pile of my mother in law's clothes. It felt like a miracle that they had made it! They smelled horrible. I immediately started washing them. I gathered my sister in law something to change into and got her in for a shower. Then, I made grilled cheese sandwiches, none of us had eaten anything since early in the evening. My sister in law came down after she cleaned up and stood in my kitchen. Her red, swollen eyes told me she had cried in the shower.
"I'm like......lost," she said, almost whispering. She
looked lost. Complete devastation and confusion was so apparent on her normally confident and determined face. I couldn't (and still can't) imagine what she was feeling. She struggled to eat her grilled cheese sandwich, but she did eat it. She needed to calm her stomach. My feet and back were killing me. It was after 4am, we went to bed.
*
Feel free to correct my punctuation and point out any change in context. I will fix it promptly.
