Historic Family Farm Up In Flames

Jennifer Rumleskie is organizing this fundraiser.

Donation protected

I’m writing this with some difficulty as I ponder all that’s been lost due to a very avoidable situation. The Daly family, Joan, Jeff, Patricia and Jennifer have never asked for help before and have always pushed through, at times barely surviving but always, somehow, by the grace of God, making it through. This loss is devastating.

A cigarette butt carelessly tossed out the window of a vehicle costing the loss of generations of a family.

We grew up poor, with no hydro, running water or electricity, but had the pride of self sufficiency. Our farm was the homestead of a stopping place in the lumber Baron days, a post office, hotel and a bar. The outbuildings were host to many wandering through, a place of rest for the weary horses needing a break from their days of hard labour. A lifetime of work, projects and dreams housed within these buildings. Now all gone due to the carelessness of a passerby tossing a cigarette out a car window.

We know we can never recover the historical buildings, nor the antiques housed within, but hoping for some help to try to rebuild the dreams, a lifetime of work, a legacy passed down by our father, William and his father before him.

The farm equipment, the tools needed to make enough to survive, the projects that were to be the future income, all now gone.

Up in smoke.

Because of a cigarette on a dry spring morning.

Ironic as our family doesn’t even smoke and have heated with wood fires our whole lives.

I’m still having a hard time believing this.

For those of you wondering, there was no insurance. It wasn’t something that could be afforded by the family, despite the hard work and modest lifestyle.

I’m not sure how I feel in asking for help. It’s not an easy thing to do. But I will tell you, we would all be so grateful to receive anything you would be so kind to offer.

I want to thank you in advance from the very bottom of my soul for your thoughts, prayers and any and all support as we attempt to find the strength to rebuild all that’s been lost.