There is more to a home than just a house, and there is more to community than the route you drive to work, or the stack of mailboxes at the end of a lane. Nothing has made those homely truths more evident than the wildfires that ravaged Sonoma County last October.
When we asked readers to tell us how their lives had changed since that historic conflagration, their thoughtful, articulate and often emotional responses came flooding in. They ranged from laments over prized mementos and family photos lost forever and friends forced to move away, to frustration over the tough battle to recover, to determination to see the community come back stronger than before.
In a series of heartfelt haiku inspired by the fires, poet Myrna Graves Fleckles of Santa Rosa captured feelings felt by many, not just those who lost homes but their friends and neighbors as well, as shown in this excerpt:
“Address is the same
But not opportunities
Change challenges us.
Our environment
Is compromised in small ways.
We slowly adjust.”
In The Press Democrat’s newsroom, as we pored through the letters and messages, several themes began to emerge.
Some respondents became energized after the ash settled, and set out to make changes based on personal safety or the greater good.
Many told us they had lost interest in material possessions, and developed a more spiritual outlook on life. Others were knocked back so hard economically and emotionally that recovery is hard to envision, even a year later.
Force For Good
“One out of nine students at Maria Carrillo High School lost their homes last October. When we returned from our three-week break (after the fires), our classroom discussions deepened and we felt much more connected,” wrote Bridgette Mansell, a teacher at the school and mayor of Healdsburg.
“I am more committed to youth,” she added. “The fires affected how I see my role on the city council ... The fires gave me a renewed commitment to creating affordable housing in Healdsburg and Sonoma County. My high school students ... teach me to remain hopeful and focused on what really matters.”
Artist Sandy Austin Stein of Santa Rosa found inspiration in tragedy and discovered that it influenced a work already in progress.
“Although our house stood tall and weathered the storm, I - as an artist - felt helpless, as the stories emerged and people everywhere in Sonoma County were affected. A cloud of sadness emerged in a city known for joy,” Stein wrote.
“I returned to painting my mother and child image. The flames became her background as she saved her child, her precious gift. The title came to me: ‘Madonna of the Flames.’ Healing comes from art and so I promptly began ‘The Madonna’ series, based on a mother’s sensitivity to crisis.”
Laura Bacon of Santa Rosa, a phone company technician who worked to restore service after the fire, came away with a philosophical observation.
“All we can do as human beings is help one another,” she wrote. “We can keep one another in our thoughts and hope that fellow humans can find some stability and peace in their lives.”
Lynn Morin, who narrowly escaped with her husband before the flames consumed their Santa Rosa home, and survived several close calls before finding shelter, reported a renewed gratitude for basic safety and small comforts.
“We are so grateful to be alive, to live here, and to survive with such a strong community, and it has changed our entire outlook on life,” she wrote.
“Life is sweet and beautiful, moment by moment. It is the mind that will tell you otherwise, but life is real, and thoughts are untrue and unreliable. That is what I learned from the fire.”
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