#144-May 24th

We have had one of the worst weekends. Dan and I were called at one am Sunday morning and told that the building that my apartment building shares a wall with was on fire. It was a historic building we bought with my parents three years ago so I would have somewhere larger to move my scrapbook store into. I ended up selling the store about a year ago, but the new owner still has the store there, and we have 16 apartments above the store, with about 20 tenants.

Our building never caught fire (except for a little on the roof), but we now have almost 20 people with no homes due to the extensive water and smoke damge. Red Cross will put them up for three days and that expires soon, then they will have nowhere to go. So far we have been so blessed by people stepping forward to help and donations. We have managed to find temporary home for everyone, and will try to help them all find permanent new residents. Most of these people are low income, elderly, and have no means to get by without ending up on the street.

It was the most heartwrenching thing to watch all Saturday night. If you could mind sending prayers up that we can get help for our tenants to get them through, help them find homes. I am still a bit in shock. It just about did me in to watch my dad cry over this. Thanks for just listening. I needed to get it out.

This picture is from the Tribune from during the night. This is my actual picture of the day taken Sunday afternoon while they continued to hose the building down. Our building starts where the black 4 story one ends. Ours is the three story Hastings apartments.