Dan grabbed more tissues for me and said “Don’t be shy. Go sit by someone.”
If you missed it, yesterday I shared about sitting in the room as some of the Paradise EFC member shared their stories and weeping. The meeting had come to a close and I felt really awkward.
My mind was flooded with these thoughts:
“These people have each other, why do they need me?”
“I haven’t even lost anything, why am I crying?
I paused. Dried my eyes as best I could. Took an deep breathe and picked a couple of ladies who were comforting each other at the side of the room. I walked up and said “May I sit with you?”
“Of course!” they said as they scooted over.
I introduced myself and said “What is your story?”
The woman closest to me, Katherine, shared that her husband was a deputy so he had been working the past 11 days without a day off. She had a 2 and 1 year old. Katie, who was standing nearby, piped up “And one more!”
Katherine smiled and said, “Oh yeah, I’m pregnant!”
She shared that the kids missed their Daddy so much since they weren’t getting to see him at all. She felt a burden on her shoulders to take care of the kids and home since her husband had so much on his shoulders. She would put her kids to bed before he came home because he needed time to recover. This was the first time she had really felt some of these emotions.
I asked Katie about her story. She shared that her home was gone. Her siblings and parents had lost theirs as well. She said that they all had wished that at least one of their homes were still around because they would have at least one place where they had made memories still around. She had grown up in Paradise and so it was tough to know all those places they had made memories for years were gone.
She also shared that they were not sure about living situation. There were no apartments or homes for rent. They also didn’t want to jump into buying since the prices were inflated. A 2 bedroom, 2 bath home in a bad neighborhood could go for $600,000.
She had 4 girls and her husband still had his job.
“We are just taking it a day at a time right now” she said.