Loss
I was able to speak to my father the other day. Sometime on Friday night a fire (they're saying faulty wiring) broke out in the attic of the apartment building. No one even noticed it until it was out of control. The fire department came and had fought it back and it was almost out.
The residents were feeling good since this means that even though they'd have to find somewhere to live until the roof could be rebuilt, most of their property could be recovered. Of course, things are never quite that simple. The wind picked up at just the right angle to reintroduce the flames to all that kindling for just enough time to collapse a support beam, and once that fell the fire had all it needed to arise in a place that wasn't easily reached by the hoses.
And so, within minutes from that point everyone had lost everything. My father was one of the less unfortunate ones. He thought to grab his wallet and keys before leaving. There were those who ran outside without that. People had to have new keys made for their cars, which they couldn't pay for without the cards that were now molten pieces of plastic somewhere in the ashes. There was one man who now has nothing but a bathrobe. But, at least no one was physically injured in the fire.
My father is doing as well as he can be. The apartment manager had enough vacancies to get everyone a place to stay by the end of the week. Dad's renter's insurance is covering a motel room until the new apartment is ready (which should be today). And he's got enough in savings to buy new furniture and clothes and everything else. He joked about how he needed a new sofa anyway. We also figured this would technically be the easiest move he's ever made, since he has even less now than when he went to Basic Training.
The insurance paperwork is the hard part, though. They want an itemized list of everything lost in the fire. They won't let him put "Everything" and give him the amount of his coverage. And it's not like he didn't have a list of the big stuff, but it was saved on his laptop which, like everything else, is... unavailable.
Still, he survives. It's what we do. If nothing else can be said about our family, it's that we always survive and move forward. Setbacks are temporary, there's better things to worry about.
The residents were feeling good since this means that even though they'd have to find somewhere to live until the roof could be rebuilt, most of their property could be recovered. Of course, things are never quite that simple. The wind picked up at just the right angle to reintroduce the flames to all that kindling for just enough time to collapse a support beam, and once that fell the fire had all it needed to arise in a place that wasn't easily reached by the hoses.
And so, within minutes from that point everyone had lost everything. My father was one of the less unfortunate ones. He thought to grab his wallet and keys before leaving. There were those who ran outside without that. People had to have new keys made for their cars, which they couldn't pay for without the cards that were now molten pieces of plastic somewhere in the ashes. There was one man who now has nothing but a bathrobe. But, at least no one was physically injured in the fire.
My father is doing as well as he can be. The apartment manager had enough vacancies to get everyone a place to stay by the end of the week. Dad's renter's insurance is covering a motel room until the new apartment is ready (which should be today). And he's got enough in savings to buy new furniture and clothes and everything else. He joked about how he needed a new sofa anyway. We also figured this would technically be the easiest move he's ever made, since he has even less now than when he went to Basic Training.
The insurance paperwork is the hard part, though. They want an itemized list of everything lost in the fire. They won't let him put "Everything" and give him the amount of his coverage. And it's not like he didn't have a list of the big stuff, but it was saved on his laptop which, like everything else, is... unavailable.
Still, he survives. It's what we do. If nothing else can be said about our family, it's that we always survive and move forward. Setbacks are temporary, there's better things to worry about.