How does one hit rock bottom, the lowest point they feel they can hit in life not once, but TWICE in LESS than two years??
Hi, 👋🏼 welcome again to another rebuild in my life - literally and figuratively.
October 6, 2023, one day shy of two years since the last time I had to put my life back together, it all fell apart again.
It started out like any normal Friday, except I brought the boys to school because I took the day off for a doctors appointment for myself and for my oldest. After dropping the boys at school, I only had about an hour before I had to head back and pick up Jace for his appointment. So, instead of going home, I just found a parking lot close by and cozied up with a good book.
Around 9:30, I received a text with a picture of a building up in flames with the question, "this isn't your place is it?" My immediate response was, "well shit, I sure hope not!" I looked closer and responded again telling my friend that I know that isn't the front of my building and to be honest, I'm never in the back so I really don't know if that's the back or not. Surely if it was my building, someone would contact me.
I went about my day. We got the all clear from Jace's appointment. I had lunch with my mom and had an alright visit with my doctor.
It was my weekend with the boys, so I headed to school to pick them up. We got back home around 5pm. It was like a ghost town - zero cars were there which is very unusual. When we got out of the car, one of the neighbors in the other building asked if we lived there and we were okay. I obviously responded that yes we're okay and she could see the confused look on my face so she knew NO ONE HAD CALLED US! That text I had gotten WAS our building and the entire backside was now gone.
Of course all three of us immediately thought about our sweet cat Nala. Since no one called us, where was she? Did someone see her? Did she run out? Did someone take her? Is she alive? We weren't supposed to be going in the building but there was NO WAY I was leaving there without at least looking for her!
The second I walked in there, I was devastated - for me, for my boys, for Nala, for everyone in that building - it was heartbreaking. Once I got to our unit, I tried to find our girl but it was so dark and she is a great hider so I didn't have any luck. Thankfully though, the next morning we got a call that the construction crew found her, but she wasn't doing great.
Jace and I rushed to get her and hurried her to the emergency clinic. Unfortunately, after 2 days on oxygen, we were told she wasn't strong enough to breathe on her own, she had neurological damage from lack of oxygen so therefore she wasn't walking nor holding her head up. The boys and I had to make the decision to tell her goodbye.
We've been blessed enough to have family close and have been living with my brother and sister in law for the last 3 weeks. If you know me, you know this has been difficult because I hate feeling like a burden and being out of my routine.
I've been doing my best to stay positive through all of this and stay strong for my boys like I always do because they've already been through so much in the last 2 years but it's hard and I know they understand that. Especially my oldest. He told me the weekend this all happened that I was allowed to say all the words I wanted to since I was upset. 😆 bless his sweet little heart! But boy were there words!!
I think what bothers me the most about this whole situation is first, NO ONE contacted me until AFTER I had already arrived home 8 hours after the fire. Second, had they contacted me, our sweet Nala could still be with us. Third, I should have searched harder for Nala when I went in(but yes, I know, I can't dwell). Lastly, they found the cause of the fire undetermined and I feel that's because the "source" unit emptied their whole space which tampered with evidence.
So here we wait.....
.....wait for temporary housing,
.....wait for reconstruction to start
.....wait to move back in, in a year......
One day our lives will stop getting uprooted.
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