Well, back to day 1 for me. Our friends/neighbors house went up in flames Friday afternoon. She and her 13-year-old daughter (good friend of Jennifer) had no where to go until Red Cross found them a hotel Saturday afternoon. We put them up and gave them clothes. The building has been condemned and they may not be able to go back in to see if they can salvage anything. These poor people have only lived her for 7 weeks. They left their old home in another state to escape a violent domestic situation that got even worse after the divorce.
I didn't know what to say to them. All I could do was offer them a safe place to sleep and a shoulder to cry on.
The mother (Jean) and I were up half the night talking about her options and try to focus on making plans rather than what had happened. Then the next morning the Red Cross representative came over and the tears started again. Then the people that they had been staying with came back from their vacation (2 days early) and tracked Jean and Tiffany (her daughter) down to our house. The reunion brought more tears. Finally, they left to go to the motel and use the vouchers from Red Cross to get them clothing and food. I pray everything works out for them.
One saving grace, no lives were lost in the fire. Well, just some fish that were left in the building overnight. Without electricity and heat, the tanks became too cold (dropped to 28 F) and they died.
But with all the stress, my carb counting went out the window. And the only exercise I got was walking to the door to let in the constant flow of sympathizers.
Gotta go. It's snowing pretty hard here (expecting up to 8" of the stuff). I need to run to the grocery store.
) - 2 hours
