Villager's Stories

Ten days after the fire broke out, Liz and Tom Polenzani hosted a Village Brunch. More than 30 Villagers came together to talk and hug and cry; to share stories and break bread. For many, whether personally affected by the fire or not, this brunch was just what the doctor ordered.

“I didn’t know how much I needed this,” says Bridget Brewster, who is now staying with her son in Porter Ranch. Nancy Pine, whose residence was evacuated, said the event was so joyful she could cry. “It was wonderful,” recalls Prakash Shrivastava. “People showed so much concern for each other. There were more hugs than tears.”

Prakash finds a boutique hotel.

Prakash was waiting for the official notification before evacuating; then his daughter came to his house and “forced us to get our now!” he recalls. He and his wife, Uma, left with the clothes on their backs, their passports, whatever cash they had, and that was about it. “We were thinking we’d maybe be gone for two days,” he says.

Prakash and Uma tried the Westin. The Marriott. The Hilton. All booked. Then Uma remembered a small boutique hotel on Colorado and Lake. “There were two of us at the front desk. We got the last two rooms,” Prakash remembers. He could go on and on about how the caring the people at the hotel were to them. And about a church that brought bins of donation items to the hotel; and the lady at the eyeglass store; and a local Chinese restaurant; and the woman who owns the Subway shop, and so many others. “People are so caring. It’s unbelievable,” he says.

And nowhere was that caring more evident than with the Village. “Many Villagers sent texts and messages. Katie was very concerned.” says Prakash. The week after the brunch, Prakash showed up for the weekly ping pong game at the Village office. He couldn’t get over all the food and water and donation items lining the walls. “I couldn’t believe all the things they were giving out. Extremely caring,” he noted. “I learned a big lesson. I should be twice as charitable. I am charitable, but I should be more.”

Postscript: A week into their stay, Prakash learned his house was still standing. His neighbor decided to stay and water his own house and Prakash’s house. He saved them both.

Gail gets air purifiers.

Gail Anderson’s neighbors told her the evacuation order would come. So, when it was time to leave, she was packed and ready to go. But go where?

Gail and her youngest daughter went to the Pasadena Convention Center, the Super Center for evacuees. “There were so many people some in their PJs, or just whatever they were wearing--carrying whatever they could grab,” she recalls. “It was devasting.” Later that night, they found a room at a Marriott in Monrovia. Luckily, the houses on her block were spared and three days later she moved back home.

Village staff and volunteers stayed in close touch throughout her ordeal. When Village President Dick Myers checked in, about two weeks after the fire, Gail was still shaken from the stress, and worried whether her water was safe and the air clean. Dick assured her the Village would help. She asked for an air purifier…two, if possible. “Just call Nathan and tell him what you need,” Dick told her.

“I can’t say it enough. I've gone through a couple of difficult things, and the Village has helped me out with no questions or anything. They just say, ‘OK, What do you need?’ ” A month before, when Gail had surgery, so many Villagers visited her at the hospital, the staff asked if they were family or friends. “I told them family,” she said.

Being a Villager means everything.

Sally Amundson had heart surgery the Friday following the Eaton fire. “I was so focused on the upcoming surgery I wasn’t even paying attention to the fire. I knew it was going to be windy but I didn’t think of having to leave to my home.” (Note: Her condo survived the fire. And she’s healing well.)

She was sound asleep when people came knocking on her door. “I didn’t even hear them,” she says. When she finally woke up, she found the houses across the street, and the trees around her home were burning. “It was an absolute blizzard of embers swirling around my driveway,” she recalls. But she says she wasn’t panicked…yet.

A camper from way back, she was prepared with a headlight as she went downstairs into the dark. “I went downstairs to start my car and charge my phone and my car wouldn't start,” she says. She had the wherewithal to change the batteries in her keyless start key by the light of her headlight while the neighborhood around her was on fire. After getting her key battery changed and her car started she struggled to get her garage door open because of her illness, “I was getting weaker and weaker,” she says.

She was eventually able to get her garage door open and leave her property. “I could tell there was no one left in my condo complex,” she says. “I had talked to Barbara Madden the day before. Neither of us were very worried, but, we said if we had to evacuate we would go to Paula Rao’s house.” Once she got to Paula’s house she stayed for two days. She is now at her daughter's house in Redondo Beach.

Sally said, “Being a Village member has meant everything. I’ve been a member for 12 years. I was already getting a lot of support from other members [before the fires] with my health issues.” She began to well up with tears when talking about her experience as a Villager. She said that other members make up some of her “closest friends in the world.”

This devasting fire has made one thing perfectly clear to all of us; we need a village of people we can lean on in good times and bad. No one in the Village is without a story of being helped or providing the help or both is several instances. We have the consolation of knowing we will survive this TOGETHER.

*To See More Experiences With The Fire, Click on #LAFires

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