About Feeling Grateful

(Fieldon, IL) Mark Angel holds the only thing he found that was usable the morning after his home burned on November 13, 2012 in rural Jersey county Illinois.  The CD with kindergarten images of his son who is now in fifth grade was found in a case and covered with water and debris.  The gloves and jacket he is wearing are borrowed as everything the family owned was destroyed in the fire that kept restarting and kept the local volunteer fire department busy most of the night.

I live in a very rural part of southern Illinois.  It's a great place to live in many ways except that some of the things many take for granted by living in a metropolitan area are lacking in the rural parts of this country.  Fire protection is an issue.  Not only is fire protection an issue, but access to water so that a fire can be extinguished is an issue as well.

While out shopping for new basketball shoes for his son, Mark Angel received a call that his house was fully engulfed in flames.  Someone driving by the house saw the fire and called it in to the authorities, but the result was a total loss of everything the family owned.  If you have never seen what a house fire is capable of, no words, photos or videos can fully describe the aftermath.

It's really no different that what hurricane Sandy did to many along the eastern US coast several weeks ago except that everything is either melted or burned beyond recognition, not washed away.

(Fieldon, IL)  Homeowner Mark Angel talks to an Illinois State Fire Marshal investigator as two of the volunteer firefighters that responded the the fire that destroyed his home the evening before look on. 

With Thanksgiving upon us, we all need to be grateful.  Mark was grateful to at least have one CD of photos of his son. Considering he lives less than one mile from me, I know I have many reasons to feel grateful.