Christmas Fire

Submitted by Anonymous

In 1973 I was a young Mom with two boys under the age of 7. It was Christmas Eve and we wanted everything to look and be perfect in our home in Bensenville Illinois.

We had a toy white polar bear, a gumball machine and many beautiful gifts for the children and ourselves. At about 3pm we left on Christmas Day to see our relatives in Merrionette Park and were enjoying the family festivities when we received a call from our neighbor that our house was on fire.

We left immediately into the frigid subzero night and arrived at our home smoldering and totally destroyed. We were devastated because we thought we had lost everything. This was not at all true.

The next day our entire family came out to help us salvage what we could and offered to have us stay in their homes. Neighbors and people we never knew brought clothes and toys for our kids. There was a huge outpouring of love and concern the likes of which I had never felt before.

We ended up building another home on that very site and had 3 more children. The lesson learned and the gift I never will forget is that people are more important than material things which can always be replaced and that our family and friends are the greatest gift that God has given us. A perfect Christmas now is knowing this and being thankful for each and every one.