December 6, 2003 - The day that shopping saved my life. First, on Friday, December 5, I was able to cook our very first dinner in the house that my young husband and I had spent the past 18 months building. I made vegetable soup and Ryan said he would never forget that meal. Oh how true that was! Earlier that day, Ryan had noticed some water on the floor by one of the upstairs bathrooms. Our plumber had come and soldered some lines behind the shower to fix the leak. After cooking, I loaded our brand-new dishwasher! Again, excitement from the most menial task. Later, Ryan came through the kitchen saying he smelled something like hot plastic. Oh, I remember that smell so well. Many times, a spatula or bowl would slip past the basket in the dishwasher and land on the heating element. That smell was the worst. I opened the dishwasher, but no such thing had happened. Ryan went all around the house sniffing like a drug dog. He yelled for me to come to the upstairs bathroom. It sure smelled smoky in there. I ran my hand down the shower and found a spot so hot, it nearly burned my hand. I called my in-laws who lived just over the hill from us. They came with a fire extinguisher. My father-in-law opened the attic access - full of smoke! He had me call 911 (who put me on hold, by the way...). Ryans aunt listens to the county scanner at home, so she called us. I explained everything was under control, but she came out anyway. Soon, the fire department showed up. The only way to gain access to the fire was to bust out the wall. My freshly-painted, seamless, perfect wall. It made me sick. It had to be done. When they did, they didnt find a fire at all. They found a small area that was hot and smoking, but not burning. They (and by they, I mean mostly Ryan) removed the insulation and poured water on it. Ryan was in that little space too long and got sick from smoke inhalation. The fire department said that is was taken care of and everything was fine. This did not satisfy my husband. He stayed up until 2:00 am checking on that spot. Everything was checking out okay, so he went to bed. Earlier that week, I had planned to go Christmas shopping with my parents. Last minute, I felt like calling my good friend Alaina Hatfield Himes who I hadnt seen in a while. We made plans to go shopping that Saturday morning. Gods plan, really. My alarm went off at 7:30 am and I was disgusted to smell smoke. Ill never get rid of that smell, I thought to myself. Our master bathroom wasnt finished yet, so we had been using the upstairs bathrooms for showers. I slowly walked out of our master bedroom and heard scratching. I thought it was my dog scratching on the door to get out. I listened more closely and realized it wasnt scratching at all, it was crackling. I looked upstairs and could see a faint glow. I screeched out Ryan, who immediately sprang out of bed and up the stairs. I grabbed the phone and dialed 911 - this time they didnt put me on hold. They told me to get out of the house. Ryan yelled for me to go get the water hose. A momentary lapse in his good judgement. I did it. A momentary lapse in my good judgement. Even with the water on full blast, it looked like a mist compared to that raging beast. Ryan Carpenter, we have to get out of this house, theres nothing we can do. There was nothing we could do. We had lost control. We did get out of the house. We grabbed coats and shoes, it was December, after all. Once outside, flames were shooting out of the eaves. By the time the fire department arrived, the flames had engulfed the roof. Ryans aunt Erin Trapp had heard it on the scanner again and called my in-laws Kimberly Carpenter and Kenneth Carpenter. I used a phone to call my parents Paula Gregory Meddock and Phillip Meddock, who were already well on their way to go Christmas shopping. I told them they didnt have to come - they didnt listen (thankfully). My friend Alaina showed up, in horror. Ryans aunt Carolyn Carpenter made us hot chocolate and we all sat in our vehicles trying to take the focus off the fire. Except Ryan. He was in the midst of it all, doing anything he could to save our house. He came to me, we cradled each other and cried over the loss of our hard work. We worked 15 months and lived there 5 days. It was a sad time, a hard time. But God got us through it. Ive always heard that if your marriage can survive building a house together, then you can survive anything. The trials of this life have been many, and weve stuck together through it all. But its not our strength that gets us through these awful tragedies, but Gods. We rebuilt that house and lived there for two years before selling it to TheCrocks Six. Theyve made it a beautiful home - and weve built another. Living happily with our beautiful children!
Posted on: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 14:12:10 +0000
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