My name is Abigail Norato. I live in Altadena,  CA. I have a husband and two children. My children are 3 years old and 6 years old. My daughter attends Daniel Webster Elementary and my son attends Norma Coombs Elementary. I work for the Pasadena Unified School District. I have worked for LEARNS at Daniel Webster for 9 years. Like many members of the community we lost our home in the Eaton Canyon fire.

 

I lived in my home in Altadena for 6 years. On that night my husband alerted me to the fire. I wanted to wait it out to see if it would blow the other direction. All of the information we received seemed to indicate that it would head east. The lights kept flickering, so I started to charge all of the electronics and flashlights. My husband then called at 9:00 and said, “babe you need to go, just in case, please go to your mom’s house, just take the important documents and go". I even asked him, "Do you want me to take you clothes when I leave for when you get off work?" He said no, we will probably be back tomorrow.  I left my house at 10:30 P.M. I took my documents such as birth certificates and passports. My son got three dinosaurs in a duffle bag and my daughter brought her baby doll. I didn’t bring anything else because I believed that we would return the next day.

 

We kept seeing the fire was getting worse and closer to our home.  The next day Thursday we drove back to Altadena to see what was left of our home. We still had hope that something was left. From far away it seemed as if my house was ok because I saw my walls were still up. Little did I know nothing was left. I stood in front of our property at a loss for words. I am not sure how but by a miracle the one thing that was left in all the debris was two coffee mugs that my grandma had gifted to my husband and I. My grandma passed away 3 years ago on 1/17/21. It breaks my heart to know that, that’s all I have left from my house. All our pictures, my children's toys, my special needs son lost all his comfort toys, all our belongings … gone. Everything we worked so hard to have is gone.

 

I know there is a lot of suffering out there and we are grateful for every dollar that will help us bridge the funding gap inrebuilding our lives.