Kids, as you probably remember, I was one of the people who lived in the Mark Twain apartments here in Sedalia.  And now, as of tomorrow, I think I can finally come to an ending on this situation.

When the fire happened, it was so sudden and unexpected for all of us, that many of us ended up going to temporary housing just to get by.  I heard some people stayed in motels, some people stayed with family or friends, some people got new places right away.  Me, I was lucky, in that I got to stay with my sister and her family.  They put me up with no questions and I was able to regroup and get my life back together.  Tomorrow is the final step, as I've finally got a new place to live.  I move in officially on Saturday.

The whole "starting over" process has taken a while.  I don't know how long these things are supposed to take, really.  It just seemed like forever to me.  At first, I didn't know what to do.  People were everywhere, offering me all sorts of help and items and sometimes just an ear.  I do truly appreciate all the help I and the others got.   For me, it was enough - I hope the others got what they needed or at least accepted SOME help.  I heard that several people didn't go to any of the events or charity evenings.  I guess sometimes accepting help can be hard.

I didn't get anything out of the remnants of my apartment.  I had to start over 100%.    I'll know officially tomorrow what else has to be done, but I think I'm ready to start again.    While I know I can't replace the things my mother and grandmother left me, and I can't get back all the years of things and mementos I had, I've still got my memories.  My father said that it was probably for the best not to have any of the old things; they'd just remind me of the tragedy that was the fire.

Maybe that is for the best.  Maybe it's time now to make new memories, to let the past go.   There is one link to the past that came back pretty quickly after the fire, though.  I mentioned in the post that I lost my two pets, Banky and Pauline.  They were seven and six years old, respectively.

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There was a day that I took off work, the day that the Salvation Army had their divvy up of all the things people had donated. That day, I got a strange feeling. My niece and I went to the animal shelter on a whim. There, in the same cage, I saw two kittens.

This is Pollux:

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And this is Castor.

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It was just uncanny, the way they were together, and looked like Banky and Pauline when they were kittens. So, we took them home. They're a handful and very energetic, and while they don't replace my other pets, it does give me a good feeling of being able to help an animal from the shelter again.

So now, I have a new place, new stuff, new cats, and hopefully a new life.

Onwards and upwards,
Behka

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