Prayers & Support Needed for Viking2002

Viking2002 ^ | 7/15/12 | Vision

[Vision]

Freeper Viking2002 has been involved in a life altering disaster. Please offer him any prayers and support you may have. I'll let him speak for himself. Please direct your posts to Viking2002.

First email: Our house burned down to a shell around 11 this morning, and it was essentially a total loss - a bad electrical outlet that wasn’t even being used was pegged as the culprit, according to the fire marshall. Most painful of all was losing our ‘kids’, Nigel and Scrat - they were overcome by the rapidity of the disaster and couldn’t get out through their pet door and into the back yard. The EMT’s tried to revive them in the front yard, but they couldn’t overcome the heat and smoke damage to their lungs. Our personal belongings are just that - belongings. Things. They can be replaced; but losing our dogs was a sword through the heart that made me curse God Himself, until the church minister arrived and helped put me at ease.

But I’m currently just waking up from the shell shock, and nowhere near that Kubler-Ross stage of grief yet, so I may need to be institutionalized once I reach that point. I think most of you thought I needed to be medicated, anyway. The Red Cross has stepped up and given us a motel room locally, and family and church from both sides of the marriage have descended upon us to help with the aftermath. My mother, brother-in-law, and sister are currently driving down here from MD and PA for the first time since I relocated here in ‘99. We were able to salvage one laptop with wireless, and we’re sharing it during the off moments we have; I dug two more out of the rubble, both suffering from heat, water, and smoke damage, but think I can cobble together a working unit from the giblets of both, since they the same model and one actually did boot up tonight. The desktop PC’s will probably never boot again, unless the hard drives somehow survived (although the PC next to the ignition source is a heat-twisted black skeleton, and it’s getting last rites presumptively). So, no matter what the outcome with the bank, insurance company, etc., we’re pretty much starting over with just the clothes on our back, and the acrid stink of fate clinging to our skin. But I’ll be out here; it’s just that the Devil handed a fiftyish couple a shared midlife crisis they weren’t expecting. At all.

Second email: This is Eric - we salvaged a laptop to use here in the motel. Our house was totaled. It went up so quickly, it was fully involved and out of control by the time our neighbor called 911. The fire marshal isolated an electrical outlet - one that wasn’t even used - as the point of ignition. A storm had just hit the area, so we’re deeply suspect of a lightning strike. We want to thank everyone - down here and up there - for your prayers. It means the world to us that so many people have lent us support as they have. Everyone down here has been fantastic - the Red Cross, The Christian Center, our church, and our minister, Brother Fran, who’s already crawled through the soot and grime to help recover what he could, Connie’s family, my step-children, their father, the community, even people we’ve never known have shown up with their sleeves rolled up and ready to do whatever they can. We’re overwhelmed by the support we’ve been given by all. At the end of the day, what we lost is replaceable.

Connie and I still have each other - that can’t be replaced. The hardest part was losing our ‘kids’, Nigel and Dixie. The EMT’s tried to resuscitate them, but the heat and smoke was too much for their little Dachshund lungs. It was like losing our own flesh and blood. Harder still was having to take them, wrapped in a blanket, to the animal clinic and say goodbye. I can’t bring myself to think of what they went through, and knowing that they were probably screaming for us in their minds. I would never wish this feeling of anguish on anyone. They’ll receive private cremations and reside next to their big sister Rhubarb, who’s urn the firemen were able to retrieve, and we thank God for that. We’ll rebuild our lives out of what we have left, no matter how much or how little, and we’ll be better people because of it. On a good note, Heidi, Mama Kitty and the kittens (or as I call them all, the ‘kitty litter’ HAR HAR) all made it through the fire. In fact, not only were we able to place for adoption all but the two kittens (Speedy and ‘Noid) we’re keeping with Mama, but Ingrid, Len, and especially Kalli were so taken with the kitten we named Midnight, they adopted her and are taking her home to PA to give Hailey a new little playmate.

[MonicaG]

So sorry to hear about your loss - everything else can be replaced except “man’s best friend.” Can’t imagine your grief. I hope all the memories you have of those two pups will give you comfort; I’m sure they had a wonderful life with you and that they are prancing around in heaving right now, being their cute selves & cracking God up with how sweet they are.

[MonicaG]

Amen.

[RegulatorCountry]

Not a sparrow falls outside the knowledge of Him that made them, Viking2002. Your dogs are in good hands.

There is much comfort to be found in scripture; in various denominations, not so much. If you need to delve further and are looking for a starting point, turn to Romans 8:19-22.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

“But I’ll be out here; it’s just that the Devil handed a fiftyish couple a shared midlife crisis they weren’t expecting. At all.”

Prayers for you.

Sometimes God uses hardship in surprising ways - regardless of what caused it. May He do so in your lives.

[ChocChipCookie]

Oh, Viking, I am so, so sorry to hear about this and the loss of your beloved pets. I’m praying for you right now and hope that you will allow your FR family to help you.

[onona]

What do you need and where can we send it to ?

Our prayers are with you.

[llmc1]

Prayers have been sent.

[left that other site]

May You find comfort in the LORD, and with each other during this devastating time. My heart goes out to you, especially for the loss of your little dogs.

Prayers for you in Jesus name for healing, restoration, and victory over this horror.

(((HUGS)))
ML

[gitmo]

Praying. I’m sorry about your ‘kids’: I understand your grief well.

What part of the country are you in?

[Silentgypsy]

Prayers up. I’m very sorry for your losses.

[USARightSide]

‘What part of the country are you in?’

He refers to relatives ‘driving down here from
MD and PA - - -’
So, further south than MD - - -

If it was lightning that struck his home, Florida has huge electrical storms - - but maybe also states in-between. . .

He may say soon.

[Viking2002]

Only have a moment to pop in, but my wife and would like you all to know how overwhelmed we are by everyone's prayers and support. Between our families, the church, the Red Cross, our local community, and not the least of which our FRiends here at Free Republic, it's helped keep us grounded and focused on the blessings we received in the aftermath. It has been and will be a long uphill slog back to normalcy, but we're built like tanks. It's made me realize all the more how much goodness there is still left in America, and how hard we must fight to take this country back before it is destroyed by the evil eating away at it.

God bless each of you, and I'll be back to drive you nuts before you know it. - Eric

"As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their hearts desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."

--H.L. Mencken, The Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920

[fieldmarshaldj]

Prayers for you and yours during this difficult time.

[Viking2002]

Originally from the coal country hills of Western Maryland. Lately of East Central Alabama - we've gotten some bad storms as of late. As it happened, I had the weather radar up on my computer screen at work, and I'd just texted my wife that a cell blew up directly over town, when she called, in hysterics, and was screaming about the house. I was there 20 minutes later, and it was already gutted. Flames coming out through the roof. Our particular area is a known lightning magnet. One tree in my back yard was recently killed off by a strike. The fire department knows the area well. A storm in March caused a surge that not only killed the hot water tank, but two bedroom outlets, an oven element, and the memory in my wife's PC. All at once. I always joked that the house was built on an old Indian burial ground, and the spirits were a bad mood.

Ain't so funny to me now.

"As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their hearts desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."

--H.L. Mencken, The Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920

[Alamo-Girl]

I join in urgent prayer for you!

[Blitzen42]

So sorry, Viking2002, for the immense loss you and yours have suffered. We will continue praying for your strength and courage, and for the loving arms of God to be wrapped around you as you seek to move toward some semblance of normalcy in your life. I wish I could make it all better for you . . .

[JDoutrider]

Had to start from scratch two times due to losing all in fires... a humble Prayer to give you strength.

[Kitty Mittens]

(((((Praying with All my Heart)))))

[betsyross60]

Prayers for you and yours. May you feel the warmth of God’s love as His children demonstrate His love toward you in unexpected ways.