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January 2026

THIS IS A CHAPTER, NOT MY WHOLE STORY

I truly believe that I must and will consider this fire and the tremendous loss of
everything I owned to be a chapter in my life’s story, it will not become the defining book
of my life. This is a thought that helps me stop talking about THE FIRE every day with
others. There is more in my life than this disaster.

Having said that, there are still memories that come to me in the most unexpected
moments. I may be reading a good book, and a quilt is mentioned . . . my mind starts
immediately remembering my grandmother’s quilt that was placed among my baby’s
quilts and the many others I had collected from family over decades. All these were
gathered together on a shelf forming a work of art that I admired every single day.

One day I was talking with a friend who mentioned Mount Wilson and I recalled a trip up
there for a picnic. While I was there, two young people asked for a ride back down after
having run out of energy from walking up . . . I was happy to accommodate. In
exchange for the ride down and into the hills of La Canada, they gave me a Mount
Wilson mug, which I treasured. The very next time I met with my friend, she gave me a
Mount Wilson mug. Of course, this made me think of all the special mugs of a lifetime.

Just yesterday, my car battery died in the car I recently purchased, and another friend
had cables to jump it and off I went. As I drove away, I thought about my beautiful car
that was lost forever . . . the many times driving with the top down and feeling free as a
bird. I was never without jumper cables in the trunk. Today I ordered new ones.

There are so many moments like these when a memory takes me by surprise. My point
here is a simple one, each of these moments of remembering the many things (some
almost insignificant, others deeply painful) composes a chapter in my story of the fire,
they do not tell the story of my life.