My heart hurts for this senseless loss of life and I’m still trying to process it... in the early morning hours of January 29, my Oma and Opa’s old family home in east Toronto caught fire and in the inciting inferno three beautiful souls were lost...my Tante Jana Jansons (dad’s sister), my cousin Arija’s sweet little boy, Kai, and Amanda Freimanis. Arija, who survived the blaze  is in the hospital ICU and it has been hard for us to get updates on her status, so we are in the dark about what is happening. Due to COVID restrictions, even if Dad could get into the country, he would still have to quarantine for 2 weeks before he could get to her... I am in shock right now with the news and my mother’s heart breaks into a million sharp pieces for Arija’s loss of her beautiful little boy, but I absolutely refuse to be paralyzed with inaction because of it. I am beseeching each one of of you, please help her and my cousin Rolands, who as next of kin has been involuntarily thrust into shouldering this heavy burden.

In a fire you lose everything - after losing a child, material possessions seem so small and insignificant but she’s going to need to start from scratch and if we can help her lift a fragment of that insurmountable burden, please do what you can. The Latvian community is strongest when we are fighting together for a cause... Well, I am sounding the horn and rallying the masses because in this, we each can do something to help lift one pebble from this mountain of grief. And if more and more of us proceed to lift a single pebble, that mountain though still present will become a little lighter for those forced to shoulder it. Ar visu manu sirdi, Paldies.