The lighter side of life – staying in touch with friends and family by celebrating the ordinary.
Another Worthy Cause!
My friend Dana’s oldest daughter’s house burned down yesterday!
Hannah, her husband, and their 5 kids are all fine, thank goodness, they weren’t home at the time. But their house was completely destroyed and they’ve lost everything.
Apparently it was caused by a neighbor’s fireworks hitting their doghouse and catching it on fire, which then spread to their shed and then their house. It’s hard for me not to be angry when the cause was someone’s fireworks.
I can’t imagine how devastated I’d be if I were to lose everything. I’m very attached to my house and all my stuff.
Here is the picture of her family from the GoFundMe site.
For my older relatives who may not be comfortable or set up to use GoFundMe, just let me know if you want to donate and I can do that for you.
Dana and Chris are going out there to see them on Friday (Indiana I think?), but they’re flying out, or else I would send some of my extra household items out with them. I have too much stuff. But Dana says her daughter doesn’t have a place for household stuff yet anyway. Right now they’re in a hotel. All 7 of them!
I’ve really appreciated Dana and her wife, Chris, who have been very welcoming. I met Dana while volunteering at the botanical garden, and she is the one who told me about the Master’s Naturalist class I took last semester, when I learned so much about the Sonoran Desert. It was such a good course!
Then recently Chris and Dana invited me to start going to the gym with them. Chris does the group classes while Dana has been teaching me how to use all the weight machines and the free weights. I would definitely not be going to the gym if they hadn’t invited me. And the gym is right near my house; I can bicycle there in 5 minutes! Now I’m going to the gym regularly and am enjoying it more than I expected.
Chris and Dana have also had John and I over to dinner a few weeks ago – and it was fantastic. Homemade spanakopita! Grilled steaks! Salad and homemade cake with strawberries! We owe them a dinner when they get back from Indiana – we’ll have to get our cookbooks out and hope for the best.
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