On August 28th of 2007, I met a man named Ed. He and I both had been divorced twice and were reluctant to try another relationship. After just a few months we found ourselves dating and eventually we fell in love. After a couple of years of living in motels, due to work, we finally got an apartment. We lived in it for about three years and Eds best friend’s house came open for rent. I wanted this house more than anything. It was beautiful. On June 16,20112 we moved in along with Eds son, Ryan, and my mom. With Eds dad suffering from memory loss and seizures, it was perfect. Their house was right next door. After cleaning and organizing for five days, we were finally done. Everything was where we wanted it. Perfect! Ed decided he was going to cook dinner that night. He put a pot on the stove and went to use the rest room. I was in our room hanging up clothes, and my mom was in her room playing on the computer. Ryan was in the study listening to music. Ed hadn’t been in the bathroom for two minutes. The very next thing we heard was FIRE! By the time we made it into the kitchen, our house was on fire. The flames were coming out from behind the stove, up over the cabinets, and rolling onto the ceiling. I froze in my footsteps. Ryan ran to his grandmother’s house to ask for a fire extinguisher. Without even thinking, I ran into her house, picked up the phone and called 911. It was the most traumatic thing I had ever been through in my entire life. All we could do was watch everything we owned and worked for disappear. We felt so helpless. When the fire was finally out, we were lost. No home, no clothes, no car, and no money. We lost everything. All we had was each other. Thank God everyone was alright. We had a serious problem. Where were we going to live now? The Red Cross provided us with some clothes, food, and a hotel room for a couple of nights until we could figure out something to do. A friend of ours had offered us a place to stay and we were so grateful. Out of all the friends that we thought we had, only one offered to help.
After four months, our home is finally being rebuilt. I would never wish this experience on anyone in the world. I cannot express enough or put into words the emotions we felt that night. There are no words. Lost, maybe. Helpless, is another. To see something that you and your spouse has worked so hard for, wanted so much, just disappear before your very eyes and not be able to do anything about it; there are no words to express that. It has not been easy these past few months. Ed and I have argued and been stressed out beyond belief. All in all though we realized two things; who are true friends really are, and that we have each other when we had nothing else. We are so excited to move back into our home. Ed and I have said many times that we do not care if we have one piece of furniture to put into the house. We will sleep on the carpet. Oh, another thing that we have learned is that privacy is very hard to obtain when you are not in your own home. There is nothing like having your own place with your own things.