Gerald"Burger" and Cathy Fleming

On Friday July 22nd my parents Gerald "Burger" and Cathy Fleming lost everything to the Oak fire.

Burger and Cathy have been lifelong mariposa residents, they both attended mariposa high school in the 1960's and married in 1975. They spent their entire lives working, building a home, family and life here. After 47 years of hard work it was all gone in a matter of 20 minutes.

My father Burger is the 4th generation on his mothers side of the family (Tresidder) here in mariposa He worked in construction his entire life starting as a painting contractor with his father Earl Fleming who was a painting contractor here in mariposa begining in the 1950's

My mother Cathy moved to mariposa when she was around 5 years old. She is a very talented artist and has been a member of the Sierra Art gallery in downtown mariposa for many many years.

As many of us know fire insurance in this area is near if not impossible to find let alone afford. My parents fire insurance was canceled by their insurance Co a few years ago when wildfires in our area started increasing. They were unable to find another fire insurance they could afford being on a fixed income. Thankfully and most importantly they got out safe that day but literally lost everything but the clothes on their backs and the car they were driving. Without insurance they are left with nothing.

My hope/ goal is to be able to find them a decent size travel trailer to be able to park on their property when it's safe to do so in order to allow them to begin sifting through the ashes of the last 47 years .

Typing this is heartbreaking for me not only thinking of my parents loss but also my own This was the home I grew up in and have known since the day I was born.

Both of my parents are proud strong people and have always worked hard for everything they had. They have always gone out of their way to help family, friends even strangers in any way they could, and rarely if ever asked for help for themselves .They finally agreed to let me do this go fund me but they have had an incredibly difficult time accepting the fact that THEY

need help this time.