Fire wipes out home in Mississippi

Hi, I am David, and I am raising money for my good friends, cleaning crew, and occasional cat carers, Angel and Julie. Angel and Julie were devastated when they arrived from a short trip to find their home in rural Mississippi burnt to the ground. The ruins were still smoking as they arrived. The loss was even more poignant when they realized the fate of all the indoor cats they cared for.

I have known Angel and Julie for almost 20 years and have been blessed to have them work for me, they have gifted me their humor, poetry and even art. They are truly good people.

However, now they are in dire straits and need your help to get back on their feet and to find a new home. They need to replace their home in the woods, and they need money for housing until then. They had no insurance on their home. They are working with local charities and our state government to get relief, but this help is uncertain and will take time. One source from the state government said that the waiting time for housing requests was currently at four years!

I will leave you with the words from Julie as she described the scene and their feelings of that fateful day.

We said goodbye to our baby kitties and went off to work at 11:00

and returned at 2:30. We didn't notice a thing wrong until we

were past the curve in the driveway. The Torii Gate at the entrance

to our front patio was standing just like always, but behind it was

nothing but smoke, bright flames and smoldering ash.

Our babies! They couldn't escape. They were gone. The house and

most of the porch was gone. The hulk of the refrigerator and the water

heater had curled over. There was no sign of stone countertops, or

Patriot Supply boxes we stashed for emergencies.

We had the clothes on our backs, two partial bottles of water, and

whatever we had in our purses.

EVERYTHING ELSE WAS GONE.

First, it was a shock. Then, we screamed and wept and called Fire and

Rescue but it was too late to save our babies. We cannot think of how they

must have died. We remember things to each other...to say goodbye, that

linen ten-gore dress I was so fond of, her swords from our SCA days.

Recovery week one: A friend let us stay. We have a roof and a bed apiece,

but. Walmart pharmacy set her up with a complete three months of five meds

and didn't charge us. The people at AT&T were kindness itself, even donating

a check to help. Red Cross brought us a card with money on it, and as we have discovered things we need, they have refilled it. They have been great. But

a lot of agencies are not answering or don't return calls. I guess this is

a bad time for the government. FEMA claims only to handle federal emergencies.

I guess, by that they mean big things that involve a lot of people...and here's

me, thinking the federal government worked for us. Not. So, we have turned to

our community to ask for help. We've been doing it for years and never expected to end up needing anything ourselves. Thank you for your prayers.