5 Alarm Fire- A Home Lost

What do you do when your friend's house is on fire? When she has lost her home and you are talking with her on the phone and crying with her while in your own bed, in your own home, kids snug in their own beds at 12am? 

She is 1/3 of my Pre School Mafia. She is the loveliest and funniest instant friend I have made in a long time. And when I heard her voice in the midst of 



her building burning down, she said in her same calm voice, "Hey, I got with me what I really need. I have my child. I have my husband. The rest is just stuff." And I am sitting there and I am thinking, "She is right! She is so wise and so right!" and then a beat later I think, "She is in shock! She is completely in shock!" because though she is 100% right that she has her world with her in her family and that is what matters the most, I can't help realizing that I am sitting in my BED in my ROOM at my ADDRESS. I am wearing PAJAMAS and SOCKS. I took out my CONTACTS and put on my GLASSES and brushed my teeth with my TOOTHBRUSH while I thought about her. This morning I went to my KITCHEN and took out a MUG while wearing my SLIPPERS. I got out a SPOON and made my cup of COFFEE. I sat on my COUCH and began to write. Absolutely everything I did I had these annoying bold words screaming in my head, listing the simple things that are missing from her life now. All the rebuilding they will have to do. She lost her nest and everything in it. Pots. Pans. Food. Clothes. Toys. Furniture. TV. Utensils. Gifts. Mail. Books. Rugs. Sheets. Blankets. Stuffed animals. Pictures-The main thing that made her solid voice break. I can still see them on her shelf, too. I can see the picture of her and her husband; K wearing a bandana on her head. She laughed as she told me how much her mom hated that photo. She straightened it and laughed again as we walked out of the apartment. (It was a super cute photo.)

K's baking business: She surprised my son with this on his birthday. All of her baking equipment she used to run her cake baking side business is gone.

The list goes on holding things that I don't even know about. And as I type and my emails come in saying that Black Friday is extended and Cyber Monday came early it makes me want to say this:

I want to help. I want to put on Santa's true hat and help. I can't make a new nest appear. And I can't get back her most likely demolished car that was parked behind her building. And I can't take away the feelings and loss she is experiencing. 

I can help her look forward, though. 

I ask you all (even though it may piss her off) if you will help me help K rebuild her life. It will only be a small portion of what needs getting done, I know. But while you are at Walmart, Target, Walgreens, Hannaford, Staples, Children's Place, Kmart, JCPenny's, Sears, Barnes and Noble, Bed Bath and Beyond, CVS...wherever you are in the next few days and weeks getting ready for the holidays, will you please pick up a $5 gift card for K and her family and send it to me? Or hold it for me and I will come get it. I will collect these and help my friend: a nurse, a mom, a baker, a wife, a daughter, a giver of herself at all times, receive something to aid in her struggle. We can help her remember what this Season of Giving really means. 

A very personal thank you.

~Kate

Send to:

Kate Laird

68 Vaughn Hill RD

Bolton, MA 01740

kate@katelaird.com