Weese House Fire Update & a Humble Thank You

[02fanatic]

Hello Everyone:

If you’ll bear with me for a moment, I’d like to give you all an update. It’s been just a little over 4 weeks ago that we had our house fire, and we are still adjusting to our rental housing and everything that goes along with basically starting over. We continue to work with the builder toward rebuilding our "home" and the company that is going to try to salvage as much of our clothing, furniture, and personal items as possible. Judy and I are not getting our hopes up, but we should be able to salvage some things from the “absolute massive” smoke damage our belongings experienced.

Everything in the basement caught fire or was smoke and/or water damaged, so it was all but a total loss for things in the basement. The fire managed to reach all the way to the second floor but it was mostly contained within the walls (a real problem for the firefighters to locate), and the damage from the intense heat was most evident in the first floor kitchen and family room. The house is currently "gutted" awaiting restoration.

Unfortunately, we had a ton of things in the basement (many priceless family photos, the ’02 parts that I’ve lamented losing – but will get over eventually, clothes, books, tools, furniture, appliances, model train stuff, etc.).

On the ’02 parts and parts for my M5 – I consider many absolutely irreplaceable, or very expensive to replace. Things like Kugelfischer pumps, new chrome bumpers, NOS tii dashboard, cold start wiring harness, 008 distributors, tii parts too numerous to mention, etc. Yesterday, I remembered that I had a NOS locking gas cap with the original BMW keys still in the original box – never used that I was going to put on Hugo - obviously, worth quite a lot even though a small part. I will probably be remembering “what I must have lost in the fire” for the rest of my life.

But, putting the “real value of life” into perspective against all of those “things” makes me angry with myself for even lamenting the loss of “things”. Probably, something for us all to ponder at times and be mindful of! I admit I’m a “horder”, but from this point onward I will probably tend to be “less so”. Life altering experiences will do that to you.

What absolutely has hurt me the most is seeing what this has done to my wife of 35 years, Judy. Being a breast cancer survivor, having other current health problems, having recently lost both of her parents, then this “fire”. Emotionally, it is going to take her a very long time for her to “be herself again”. I just pray she will be herself again at all!

However, being first time grandparents less than two weeks after the fire has been a great joy to us. Our newly born granddaughter “Delainey McLaren Weese” is truly a little miracle that we all marvel at. When bad things happen, good things always seem to happen too!

I want to thank you all for your continued thoughts and prayers. And those of you who contributed to the “fund”, I can’t say enough how much this means to us. Being on the “receiving end” of “giving” is not nearly as easy as being on the “giving” end, let me tell you. It is very humbling, and intensely appreciated by us personally!

I have posted a few photos below, separately (if they come through). if not, I will post another time. I don’t really want to show the “damage” again, but the love in my family as we all “pitched in” that aweful day…..our son’s Justin and Brandon helping Dad in the burned out basement, and a pic of Judy & I, in the one portion of the house garage that remains relatively in tact, managing a “smile”

Blessings to you all,

John

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[danjrusdug]

John,

It is good to hear from you buddy. Take care of Judy. She should probably be your priority right now. : )

Was the 4 speed in the basement as well? I hope not.

Take care,

Doug

'73 tii Atlantik

[02fanatic]

John,

It is good to hear from you buddy. Take care of Judy. She should probably be your priority right now. : )

Was the 4 speed in the basement as well? I hope not.

Take care,

Doug

'73 tii Atlantik

I will Doug, for sure - she's my priority! And the 4-Speed is "SAFE" - I have it in the detached garage with the cars! :-)

Great to hear for you and thanks for everything!

John

[HarryPR]

Great to hear from you, John.

We will keep you and Judy in our prayers, and if there is anything we can do from here, please let me know.

[dapbmw]

It's good to hear from you John! Happy to hear that eveybody is doing fine.

Cheers,

Dave

[Harv]

Also glad to hear from you. Glad you are on track. Take care of Judy. My wife Jen, commented on how nice she was when you guys were over last summer.

You guys are in our thoughts and hearts.

John

[Mike Self]

and bring Judy too--I know several spouses that will be there--all '02 widows--(mine included) who can offer some female sympathy and cheering-up.

Looking forward to seeing y'all...

mike

[InkaSteve]

However, being first time grandparents less than two weeks after the fire has been a great joy to us. Our newly born granddaughter “Delainey McLaren Weese” is truly a little miracle that we all marvel at. When bad things happen, good things always seem to happen too!

John

John, very sorry to hear about your loss. You will realize that 1st time grandparenting puts everything into perspective. You will find yourself focusing more on the new little one, then you did on your own kids. We became new grandparents last year (05/07 My daughters first daughter, and 07/07 one of our son's first daughter). You are right, it seems with the pluses you get hit with some minuses. After the joy of new grandchildren, we got hit with our oldest son finding oral cancer, financial downturns, and losing 2 cherished family pets. But, the miracle of new life and watching them grow, far outweighs the losses.

We pray for rapid recovery for you and your wife, and boundless joy in your new grandbaby.

Attached a pic of our joyful additions to the extended family should bring a smile to your face.

[Victor_PR]

thoughts go out to you and your family. I can only imagine the difficulty you are going through after such an event. I pray that you and your loved ones can soon get over this and can return to normality again.

Take care!

[Armond]

Glad to hear things are moving forward John.

Armond

[BigDog]

John,

I'd been absent from the community for a while, just one of those times, and I heard about this tragedy from BCapp. I'm hoping that you're doing well, and in all hard times, I have to only look for the goodness in it all...

When bad things happen and you wonder why, search for the simple reason... The house was jealous of the garage-mahal and decided it simply couldn't go on. Sorry about the humor, but it's how I deal with adversity.

Keep your head up and the rubber side down.

BD

[02fanatic]

John,

I'd been absent from the community for a while, just one of those times, and I heard about this tragedy from BCapp. I'm hoping that you're doing well, and in all hard times, I have to only look for the goodness in it all...

When bad things happen and you wonder why, search for the simple reason... The house was jealous of the garage-mahal and decided it simply couldn't go on. Sorry about the humor, but it's how I deal with adversity.

Keep your head up and the rubber side down.

BD

Thanks Man! You made me laugh! :-)