Raising Hope for Chelsea, Tommy, and Valentine
My dear friend, Chelsea, her husband, Tommy, and their three-year old daughter Valentine, fled the Alta Dena area last night (1/7) due to the devastation to their city. This is what is left of their home.
From Chelsea:
Friends and family,
Those of you who know me as a poet know I could find a fancy way to say this. But the truth is I am devastated and will carry the scar of this tragedy for the rest of my life. Not only did our home burn down, but our extremely special community of Altadena was completely lost. The neighborhood and surrounding areas, grocery stores, coffee shops, parks, schools, everything that makes a community so connected and beautiful, are ashes.
If you know us you know we are HOME people. We delight in entertaining and making our home into a cozy, bespoke space. We’ve probably had you over for coffee. Or a holiday party. Or a tarot reading. We love when all the children are running around screaming and playing. We love cooking for you. And hosting poetry salons and poetry nights. And that space for us now is gone.
We were able to get out with just our computers, pets and the clothes on our backs. But have lost everything else. Everything. It’s incomprehensible and I’m sure we will be remembering things for a long time only to reach for them and have them be dust.
Along with our house and belongings we also lost our ADU which we ran our small business out of. All of the things in our shop that contributed to our livelihood- endless types of tools, supplies, monitors, sewing machines, all my art from the time I was a kid, every sketchbook from
college and childhood diaries-everything absolutely gone.
If you can help us with anything it will be more than we have now. And will help us find a new place to call home. All of these funds will go to non-covered expenses.
We love you all so much and have been so touched by the messages of support and kinship during the magnitude of this unimaginable disaster that has effected so so many
