Wednesday, June 29, 2016

June 29 – “The text said, ‘My garage caught fire’”

Well that was an interesting text to wake up to.  Actually I was already awake and dressed to go to water exercise class and in the beginning stages of a blog entry when the text came through.  All it said was, “My garage caught fire.”  That’s it.  No details included.  Curious, I asked the expected question, “Everybody OK?”  Once that was settled, Chris and I began changing clothes for a drive up to Texas City where Anne and Eric live.  We stopped and got a dozen donuts for them in case they hadn’t had time to eat (and a dozen donut holes for Cedric, of course). 

As we pulled up the fire engine and fire marshal were pulling away, which we took as a good sign.  We went to the front door first, but when there was no answer we assumed they were around back at the garage.  We made our way back there and surveyed the damage.  Looks like the back wall was the obvious place of origin.  Apparently a power tool battery charger was the culprit.  Guess I need to go unplug the one I have set up in our garage.  A situation like that here would involve the entire house (their garage is detached). 

Anne took Cedric on to daycare and we started in on clearing stuff out.  The insurance agent told them over the phone they could go ahead and get started as long as they took pictures of everything.  It was an interesting and often sad morning.  Most of their Christmas ornaments and Halloween decorations were gone.  Many times we couldn’t even tell what an object was.  It just looked like a blob of plastic.  Eric did figure out, though, that some of those plastic blobs were his collectible action figures and comic books.  Anne lost some dolls that were pretty special to her, but they learned, as we did after Hurricane Ike, that ultimately the things they lost were just stuff.  They were all OK (even the cats).  Tough lesson, but life counts.

We worked for several hours until the sun was high in the sky and hot.  We prayed together and Chris and I headed home to rehydrate and crash for the afternoon.  Pray for Anne and Eric and Cedric.

Romans 12:12 says, “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”


Father, walk with the Geswender family as they deal with insurance companies and contractors in the days to come.  Amen.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I want to thank you both so much for being there for them! It is hard living so far away when things like this happen. It certainly eases my mind to know that you are there for them.

Unknown said...

Yes, I agree with Bonnie. Thank you both for being so quick to step in at that crucial time. Praying a shower of blessings for you.