Life after the Fire

our house after the fire

    I may have lost everything but one thing I am most sure is I have something and that is Strength. I never thought I have such ability. It is true that you can feel your strength in the experience of pain. When that tragedy happened I felt so alone my husband was million miles away from me, I cannot call him nor message him, I saw people  around me panic, crying and shouting. I remained calm, in fact in my mind I started to plan what will be my next move, where will we stay for the night, where will we get food, where would I get our clothes. I choose to stay calm for the sake of my two children, I do not want them to see me worrying, I want them to feel normal no matter how hard the situation.

 That day, I tried to perform my responsibility as much as possible. I reported to the office of the City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWD) and they promised me cash assistance that until now I haven't receive. I also reported to the Barangay Office and they give me food assistance consisting of five (5) kilos rice, noodles, and few canned goods and with matching picture with some politicians (politics!!). They also promised cash assistance but so far no good.

I was just thankful with my office mates that they help me financially. I was able to buy new clothes to wear, some pillows and slippers for my children. My problem now is where we will stay for the night, some of my relatives say that it is bad luck for the owner of the house to accommodate fire victim even for one night. Good thing my neighbor who was not affected by the fire offer their house for us. They have room for rent, they offer it to us free, and it is air- conditioned! That was I needed after a long, tiring and very hot day!

  

There were people whom I do not know who send their help and donated their clothes to me and to my kids and I was very thankful to this people.

The day after the incident, I act normally as if nothing happens. I go to the office and do what I usually do in a normal situation. I even reported to the Bureau of fire.

Sometimes I think I was in my denial stage but as the days goes by I always ask myself if do I really regrets the things that I've  lost. Honestly, I have no regrets because I know and I am deeply convinced that those things will be recovered soon. Though some of them are irreplaceable but for as long as I have my family I know we can always make new and much happier memories.

    

This girl is on Fire!

Just when I am ready to write a blog concerning the life of OFW, there is always something personal happening on me and so I always end up writing my owned experienced. Last September 23, 2013 the house where I lived for seven years was lost due to fire. I never thought in my life that I would experience such catastrophe. It was still clear on my mind what had happened on that fateful Monday morning. The sun shines so bright on that day, it was actually a perfect day so I thought, I remember I woke up so early on that morning to prepare food for my children and because I have so much time left I went through my collections of CD's and actually listened my favorites, one with Jim Brickman on My Romance an evening with Jim Brickman it is a gift of my husband to me on his first trip to Miami, Florida, I also played Shania Twain and Phil Collins (Oh, I miss them already!) Aside from photographs of my family and my children that I carefully collected through the years, for me those things are irreplaceable.

a 1976 picture of my husband

 After my eldest son went to school, I prepared myself and my youngest son for office on that day, until today I'm still very thankful that I brought my son to the office because my mother in-law who takes care of my youngest was not there at the time and I usually left my child to my brother in-law who lives with us. It was just five minutes after I left the house when my brother in-law running towards me and shouting that our house was on fire, my first reaction was to run to our office to call for a fireman, it only take ten minutes from our house to our office, but when I arrived at the office my office mate already called the fireman.

few of the picture i got after the fire

 I left my youngest child to the office and I run again towards home, I saw that
my neighbor's house was already burning and our kitchen was already on fire, and because I want to save my important documents I tried to go up stair but I did not make it because I lock the door to my room and I know I cannot open it because I was already trembling and below our room is our kitchen and it was already burning and Bolt our faithful dog was beside me barking so loud, I did not mind the dog at the time because I was so busy saving things, and so I turn to our living room, I tried really hard to save my TV because it has sentimental value on me. I got it on my first salary on my first job. I scream so loud hoping to find help but no one help me, everybody was afraid to go inside our house except for Bolt our dog, but in-spite of loud barking, I have no choice but to let go, I have to release the TV or else I will be caught by the fire.

 I run so fast without looking back. I still heard my dog barking, I thought Bolt followed me but someone told me that our dog was still inside our house but  I'm still  hoping that my dog followed me and Bolt was just there somewhere.

After the fire we found Bolt under my TV my faithful dog did not make it. Maybe Bolt chooses to remain inside our house to show me that I may not have save anything  except for the dress that I wore on that day but I have loyalty and that was I needed most at the time.