My Cousin Pat

Tonight I finally reached my Cousin Pat. I have phoned her a few times since my Aunt Liz's house flooded a couple of weeks ago, but had to leave voice mails. I have seen the photos on her blog and read the accounts, but I really wanted to talk to her - voice to voice. When I reached her tonight, I started our conversation with something like,

"How are you doing? Is everything getting dried out?"

Pat replied, "Haven't you heard?"

Heard what?

"Haven't you heard about the fire?" she asked?

The fire! What are you talking about?!

"Haven't you seen the pictures on facebook?" she asked.

No, I just was getting around to that.

Anyway, it seems while she was shopping at IKEA yesterday, Pudge phoned her to say she'd better head on home because smoke was pouring out of Aunt Liz's house. Apparently one of the fans that was running in the basement of Aunt Liz's house started to burn (It was the fan the mayor of the village had loaned them to help dry out the basement.) and smoke was every where. When Pat arrived at the house, there were 3 firetrucks outside.

I feel so bad for them - Pat and Pudge. But, who knows, this may end up being a blessing, because a professional cleaning company will be coming tomorrow to begin the arduous task of the clean-up. And hopefully insurance will take care of anything that needs to be replaced.