Tomorrow the 14th of December will be 40 years since our house fire. I am grateful every day to so many who helped us at that time. I’m grateful to my wonderful and heroic husband, John, for going back into that burning house, after we escaped out our bedroom window, to save our son. I’m grateful to the young (17 year old) neighbor boy who had the knowledge and forethought to grab our son, Dusty, from John’s arms and give him mouth to mouth to get him breathing. I’m grateful to the nurse who lived down the street and had the knowledge and strength to keep him breathing until the ambulance arrived. I’m grateful to the EMT’s who got him breathing again in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. I’m grateful to all the doctors and nurses who took such great care of all of us and kept our son alive. I’m grateful that Mona, our daughter, wasn’t there that night. I’m grateful for the firemen who saved our dogs and put out the fire. I’m grateful to the neighbors who opened their front door to my frantic screams and knocking at 4AM and for never asking for anything even after I bled (from cuts from climbing through our window we had to break to escape) all over their white carpet. I’m grateful to the outpouring of love from this Topeka community who anonymously donated money into a bank account someone opened for this young married couple who had no insurance. I’m grateful to the little boy who brought his Christmas present up to the hospital to Dusty because all our presents were lost that night under our tree. I’m grateful to our many friends and co-workers who cleaned up the burned out house and salvaged what they could of our belongings before we even got out of the hospital so we wouldn’t have to it ourselves. I’m grateful to the previous employer who provided us with a free place to live in his apartment complex till we could get back on our feet. I’m grateful, again, to our friends, family and co-workers who completely outfitted that apartment with the necessities of life and a room full of toys for Dusty. We will never be able to repay all these things but we try by returning these acts of kindness whenever we can. So, I thank you. I thank you all and hope that as you are reading this you remember those who need your help, support and love as our friends, family and fellow Topekans did for us 40 years ago. Chris
Posted on: Sat, 13 Dec 2014 20:14:31 +0000
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