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Crutcher's house fire - Please help

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It's with great sorrow and a heavy heart that I write this. Friday night, 7/8/2016, at about 10:00pm, an electrical fire took away my childhood home. My sister and dad's current home. Every sentimental belonging gone, well not gone but mostly unrecognizable. Too damaged to rebuild. A tragic loss. You think it's just things but its more than that. We were all born at that house. It wasn't a nice house but it was more than just a house, it was... our home, 29 years for me. My dad purchase that house before he ever met my mom and as the family grew the home value grew and not in a monetary way. First everything's happened there, steps, words, fights, smiles, Everything. If those walls could talk the stories would fill novels over and over. Stories that would bring you tears, tears of laughter, sorrow and everything in between. If you're reading this there is a good chance that you were apart of those stories. The doors were always open to whomever needed a place to stay... friends, family, partial strangers. many stayed for just a night, some a short time and others for longer than expected. Some stayed just because they didn’t want to leave, others because they had no where else to go, it didn’t matter. Memories drawn on the walls and soaked into the wood. It wasn't a house that you bought, lived in and left... it was a home that took a part of your soul when you entered and a piece of you stayed when you left,… that could of been what kept it standing for this long. If you visited, even just once, you were bound to never forget that experience, and that home never forgot you.
The house burned for five hours...was put out for good, so we thought, around 4:30am, then ignited again at 10 am that morning. Much like watching cancer slowly take my mother away, I watched for 5 hours as flames enveloped my life, or what was my life, my whole world... everything. There is no greater pain than watching something being taken away from you so slowly and being helpless to stop it...knowing there will be nothing left when it's over. My heart is empty. My family's heart is empty. What do we do now? Where will my dad and sister live? Why did this happen to us? What did we do to deserve this? How do you move on?
How does one pick up the pieces when the only pieces they have to pick up are the smoke drenched clothes on your back.
It goes with out saying that they need help, even in the smallest way.
Dad has insurance, but that only goes so far and who’s to say when they will see any money from it. They literally have nothing. We lost it all. If any one is kind enough to feel our pain and help out in the slightest it is immensely appreciated. we were standing in the drive way at the house earlier trying to get a better look at what we had lost and if anything could be saved, and a complete stranger pulled in the driveway and gave my dad $60.00 and a simple sorry for your loss and left. It’s been a while since I’ve seen pure, no strings attached, simple, beautiful kindness. $60.00 isn’t going to go far but I’ve never seen a better example of “it’s the thought that counts”
If you want to donate anything…or have any questions about what they need you can contact me by email at [email redacted]. Thank you for reading, part of my coping mechanism is to write about how I feel. One word of advice, back up your family photos now…. The photos you took before there were smart phones and memory cards those memory triggering images are priceless and irreplaceable.

Organizer and beneficiary

Matt Huensch
Organizer
Wildwood, MO
Rachel Crutcher
Beneficiary

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