When my son was born, I knew that I wanted him to grow up in a house. I set a goal for myself to own a home within four years. I held this dream close to my heart and kept images of my son running around in his own backyard at the forefront of my mind to motivate me towards this goal. About ten months before my “deadline”, I came to terms with the fact that my finances wouldn’t allow me to achieve my dream. The realization was crushing to my morale and I slowly accepted the fact that I would have to live in my apartment for another few years. But when you want something as strongly as I wanted that house—the Universe conspires to help you realize your dreams.

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My son, Aaron, was snug in his bed. Although it was late on a weeknight, Aaron’s father, Todd, and I had just retired for the night. I was drifting in that place right before deep sleep when I heard someone banging on my front door. Todd was having trouble comprehending why someone was pounding on the door at one in the morning and he stormed to the front of the apartment. I stayed in the room but noticed a peculiar orange-colored light spilling down the hallway. I peered into the hallway just in time to see Todd open the front door. My neighbor’s apartment was directly across from ours. Their front door was also open and I saw their living room—completely engulfed in flames.

I ran into the living room and saw that the orange-colored light was coming from the patio. The flames had apparently spread across the roof of the apartment building and were now raining droplets of fire onto the patio. The neighbor charged in with a fire extinguisher and we all ran out to the patio in a futile attempt to save the apartment. When we opened the sliding glass doors, we could see that the awning over my patio was completely ablaze.

I ran to the room where my three-year old was still sound asleep, grabbed his winter coat out of the closet, picked him up out of the bed, and ran outside. I stood just outside the apartment in disbelief holding my son and oblivious to the cold as I stood in my bare feet with only a tee shirt. Todd had the foresight (and ignorance) to run back in the apartment and grabbed his car keys and wallet, my purse, a robe, a pair of jeans, and some tennis shoes for me. As he ran back out of the apartment he was already coughing and a trail of smoke followed behind him. I handed him our son to hold while I dressed solemnly in front of our neighbors.

Two minutes later the building was engulfed in flames. The five families that lived there were now all standing outside of our building absorbing the shocking reality of the situation. Without neighbors to rescue or belongings to grab, there was nothing to do but watch our homes go up in flames. The night was cold but the fire was so intense that it was too hot to stand close to the building. My son, however, began to shiver. There was another neighbor with a little boy a few months younger than my own. I motioned to her and we put both of our boys in Todd’s truck, turned on the heat and turned on some music to drown out the noises outside.