Jen Atkin

I had a dog that we lost to a coyote tragically in front of me, and that was just painful.

I'm such a dog person.

I know I wasn't, but I am.

And losing the house has given me just like crazy empathy.

It's the only thing that I've gained from it is just empathy.

Like I realized in that moment, you know, it's been nine months and I feel like I'm just starting to like feel my own loss and our own loss of like our home because it's been just such a heavy loss for everybody.

I also, in that moment, felt so held by our friends and our community and our neighbors.

And we all were checking on one another.

And my husband stayed behind with some of our neighbors to help evacuate elderly people in our community.

And, you know, we never thought... I went to work that day, texted Mike and said, hey, there's some smoke near Topanga, 10 a.m.

Never thought 8 p.m.

our house would be gone.

Right.

And...

I think if anything, I feel like the best thing you could do and the best thing I could do is tell people to be prepared.

Like I had a firebox.

We had a fire scare two months prior.

So 3 a.m.

our power went out.

Mike and I went around the house and gathered a letter from my dad, my grandma's jewelry, anything that mattered to us, we put in this big box.