Hello it is so good to be back. 8 months ago, I had just partially moved in with my daughter. 7 hours after we went to bed the night after I arrived, a fire erupted on the patio. I awoke to a giant fireball approximately 6 feet behind me and the glass patio door. I screamed real loud to my daughter who was in the bedroom asleep. Here we were facing a scary fire and with our cats, we were in a scary situation. My daughter bravely tried to find the cats and burned her feet. I was pulled from the apartment by a fat, wild eyed naked man. He was the crazy upstairs neighbor, we learned later that flicked the cigarette down through the wood patio slats that caught the patio on fire. He grabbed my hand and yanked me out of the apartment and as I was running - he jerked my hand so hard I fell down quite a few stairs and onto the ground and hurt my knee very bad.
We were all crammed into a one bedroom apartment with 6 cats. My daughter had picked me up from San Antonio where I had lived for almost 10 years in an apartment. Believe it or not, she came and got me because the apartment complex where I had lived, had a fire - two buildings away from my apartment. 5 buildings caught fire that night in August and two people were killed. Some people partying on a patio and grilling close to their apartment causing a huge fire. They were totally intoxicated from reports. The management was not keeping up with the other buildings including mine, so I had to leave. (My air conditioner broke and it was 98 degrees in apartment at night in a hot Texas month - August) I was devastated. Now this!! I am not going to go into complete details yet but as time goes on I will feel better. The fire was not our fault but an upstairs neighbor. The fire department rescued us and our 6 cats and I am so grateful. We lost a lot of things but things can be replaced.. I lost mostly personal papers and documents but my most prized things like my briefcase with 33 years of memories regarding my friend who is an actor was spared and my school memories were thankfully o.k. My daughter lost a lot of things as far as furniture and things like that. It was very surreal.
We moved into a temporary apartment for 30 days but then decided to leave the city and head to a small town and stay with long time family members (by marriage) in an apartment built above their home. I am so thankful to them for their kindness. They live in a rural (very far in the boonies for me - lol) small town and an added journey of a few miles down country road. Very different living that I was used to in my own apartment of almost 10 years. I used to have to put cardboard on my windows in my apartment at night on the weekends, in case their was shooting down the hill that went behind my apartment Down the hill there was a bar, a dental center, laundry and a convenience store. (many people used a path right behind my apartment to get down there). I lived in a very scary (at times), section of South San Antonio. I love the people down there, because they never, ever hurt or threatened me, but on the weekends a really lot of bad guys would come out for their tagging, selling and robbing activities. Where I am now is a whole different story.
I am sitting today in the dining area looking down at rows and rows of fresh plowed crop fields. I see farm tractors, birds, trees and butane tanks as I sit and take it all in. Being here after 2 tragedies has calmed my system down tremendously. I have high blood pressure and high cholesterol and after the fires, I was ready to completely break down. I came here to save me and my family of cats. They lived through a horrible ordeal and I can't write about that yet without breaking down. I have been fighting writer's block. I have had articles in national magazines, city newspapers and small town community papers. I write children stories too and I completely lost my Will to Write..
I am feeling good these days. While sitting here for months completely down I started smoking like a train again, so tomorrow after a doctor visit (I have the best doctor in the whole wide world - Sam Williams) I will try once more to quit but will succeed this time.
My wonderful friends and family have given me such awesome support. Their letters, facebook comments, private messages and tweets have made me recover from all of this.
I have osteoarthritis, Fibromyalgia, a spine made of titanium and horrible hip joints. But I am most thankful that I have my ability to think, to reason, and to write. The ideas once again are flowing through my head. So I must get busy. I will be returning tonight to write some more. I am so thankful for all the people that read this blog. I have had people in 13 countries read this blog on a regular basis and I thank all of you. Keep reading and I will keep writing. I have an update about finding my biological family coming up next. Through all of this, I had the most wonderful thing happen. After decades of searching, I have found my biological family. Keep checking for that story. Hugs.
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