Day 18

And I'm on time for once! Yay! It's not late!!

Today's assignment was to write about a story from my childhood. Several come to mind, but I will write about an incident that I have told over and over to my children. One of those memories that is so vivid and real for me.

When I was 3 or 4 years old (I'm not sure how old for sure but I know because of where we lived that I was 3 or 4), I was supposed to be taking a nap. My bedroom window looked across to the neighbor's house. I remember it was a brick home. Instead of napping, I got out of bed and I was looking out my window. I saw flames! I remember running to my mom and telling her "someone is burning leaves". And I meant the leaves on the trees. Our huge tree between our house and the neighbor's was on fire.

I really don't remember what she did right then, but I do know my dad went outside and started spraying water from the water hose on the tree to put that fire out. But the neighbor's home was burning down.

I clearly remember the neighbor lady (probably in her 50's) came home from work and stood in the street watching her house burn down. She stood there with tears running down her face. (I'm assuming someone notified her at work because this was the middle of the day.)

Later, when she went through the house to see what she could salvage, she found her porcelain doll collection. They were all burned except one. She gave me that one doll that made it through the fire! I kept it for a long time and then got rid of it. I'm not a "hoarder", but I sure do wish I had that doll.

I think of that incident often.