What happens if your house burns down? The short answer is, you lose your mind. I did at least. In the days and weeks after my home was destroyed, I was walking around in a daze and not in any frame of mind to make the major decisions to be made. My husband wasn’t either. In fact, I think he had a harder time than me.
One night, I went to bed and my whole life changed….not in a good way. Nothing can fully prepare anyone for a sudden disaster. Sure, you buy the insurance, take all the safety precautions and maybe even draw up and practice an evacuation plan with your family. Having a house fire was honestly not something that ever really even crossed my mind. I am in the group that didn’t think or plan what I would do in the event of an emergency.
My house caught fire in the early morning hours of a cold January morning. Thanks to a guardian angel and a broken garage door, we were alerted by a loud banging on our door and a woman screaming that our house was on fire. This was about five minutes after my youngest daughter woke me up. It is a truly terrifying experience to wake up and suddenly be in a crisis. Not even time to think, I just threw some clothes on, grabbed my daughter and ran. No coats, no shoes, nothing but the clothes on our backs and cell phones because they were on our nightstands.
The True Value Of Good Neighbors
What happens if your house burns down? You are going to be glad for good neighbors! Our neighbors were the very best that morning. They pulled together and quickly found us coats and shoes. I had three ladies sit with me in an ambulance until my parents arrived on the scene. Our neighbors consulted us and one had even been through a house fire herself. She spent some time with me that morning giving me advice on what we should do. They are all amazing people and I’m proud to call them neighbors.
The True Value Of Family
What happens if your house burns down? Hopefully you have a great support system. We are very fortunate to have that. We were able to stay with my father-in-law until we were able to get into an apartment. All of my siblings and my parents gave us items we needed. One of my brothers even let us use a car for the first week since we also lost all our vehicles in our house fire. One piece of advice I will give, do not let your pride get in the way of letting the people who care about you help you. I started my life over with the clothes on my back, my phone, keys and wallet. Without letting people help me, I wouldn’t have made it through with any shred of sanity left.
Making A Recovery Plan
One goal of creating this site is to share what I have learned over the year and a half of dealing with my house fire and home rebuild. In any disastrous event, one thing that everyone has in common is they all need to create a recovery plan and make tough decisions. How do you deal with the insurance? Who do you call? Who do you trust yourself with? How do you stay sane and not fall apart? How do you help your children through it? What do you do? Hopefully I can share something that helps at least one person and it will be worth it, because I know first hand how tough it can get.
