One never really knows how quickly life can change. One minute you’re at a grandson’s baseball game, the next minute the fire department is at your house fighting fires! Well, almost…

So, here’s the story on the fire at our home last Thursday evening. Vanessa, Lincoln and I finished dinner (beef tips and rice–yummy!), cleaned up the kitchen and headed out the door to watch Ryder play baseball. Two and a half hours later we return to a smoke-filled home.

Vanessa walked in and discovered the back burner on the stove on high. Unfortunately, there was a pan of fish grease sitting on that particular burner. The grease got hot, flared and caused the fire that will basically gut the downstairs portion of our home.

First, I take full responsibility for the fire. It is my fault that the grease was still sitting on the stove. I fried fish the Friday before and the grease was still sitting on the stove. Now, I have my defense. It was fresh grease. I couldn’t pour it back in its container because I didn’t empty the container. I couldn’t pour it down the sink and I wasn’t going to waste it by pouring it in the woods (I’ve only used it once, for heaven’s sake), so on the stove it sat.

Vanessa has tried desperately to claim responsibility. She wiped the stove after supper that evening, she says, and surely she must have inadvertently turned the knob as she wiped the stove. She has never done that before, but she believes there really is no other explanation. After all, we didn’t use that burner in preparing supper, so there’s no reason it should have ever been on.

Well, after putting on my fire investigator hat, I think I’ve come up with another explanation. It was Abby. It was all Abby. Abby is our five-year old black lab mix.

We left Abby at home like we always do. What else we did, though, was leave a roll (a garlic knot, actually) on the pan, on the stove, on top of the pan of grease. Abby has been known to snitch a snack off the kitchen counter if no one is watching and obviously, no one was watching. I surmise that Abby was attempting to snitch the roll (it really was out of her reach) and turned the burner knob with her paw.

No offense to Abby (she was doing what dogs do), but it’s the only thing that makes sense to me. Not to say that there couldn’t have been a first time for Vanessa to turn a knob while cleaning the stove, but it never happened before, and besides, there’s a bright red light that lights on the stove whenever a burner is on. She would have seen that…I think.

It really doesn’t matter how it happened. It happened and now I write this blog from a borrowed home because the cleaning company representative thought it not a good idea for us to stay in the upstairs portion of our home. So, we join the ranks of those who have been displaced due to fire or flood, and let me tell you, it is dad-gum inconvenient!

I have a new appreciation for those who have been through similar circumstances, whether due to fire or flood. At first, there is a great sense of helplessness. You think about a lifetime of memories that you hope can be salvaged. The initial moments of the crisis are well, overwhelming. You want to sit down for a moment, but then you realize you can’t because there is soot all over everything, so you lean against a cabinet. Then, you realize you just ruined your shirt because there is soot there, too.

My empathy level (and sympathy level) for others has gone way up over the last two days.

Let me say without equivocation that we are blessed beyond measure and eternally grateful that no one was hurt (not even Abby), and we are blessed and eternally grateful that the house wasn’t a complete loss. Somehow, the fire burned itself out quickly or it would have been so much worse.

The cleaning company has already been in and surveyed the damage and the insurance adjuster is scheduled for Monday at noon. The mess will be cleaned up soon and the rebuild will begin soon after. We’ll be back home in no time…we hope.

I am also grateful and blessed that our son, Adam, is working with us now in the shop, and he’s been a trooper to keep the doors open while I’ve been otherwise occupied. It’s been a incredible blessing to have him on board, and doubly so over the last few days.

We’re also grateful for insurance companies and cleaning companies. It’s never fun paying all those premiums. We complain the whole time we do it, but initial conversations with the insurance company (thanks to our daughter Kelsey) indicate we are well covered. We know we’ll never be made whole, but we’ll be fine, and for that we are grateful.

I really don’t know what will happen going forward, but one lesson I’ve learned is this: never, ever leave a pan of grease sitting on the stove. As soon as it cools, do something…anything…with the used grease. Sounds to me like the perfect excuse to finally buy that fish cooker I’ve been wanting. Not only will it store my grease, but I can cook outside and not stink up the house. Smart reasoning, if you ask me!

I’ve also been reminded what an amazing wife I married. She hasn’t stopped going since this happened. There has been no grass growing under her feet in moving this family ahead. I’m like, “Sit down and take a breath,” and she’s like, “There’s too much to do!” Vanessa Malone kills it!

So, there you have it. It’s a bump in the road of life…a little bump compared to what some others I know are going through…but a bump nonetheless. I’m reminded how little our bump is by what’s happening in our community this weekend. It’s the Minden St. Jude Auction. I think Vanessa is more upset that she’s missing the auction than she is about the fire.

The auction reminds me that there are many people battling cancer and fighting for their lives. Theirs is a life and death battle. Ours? A minor inconvenience. Perspective matters. Our prayers are with all those in that battle.

Until next time, keep looking up…