Our hearts are with you! We know first-hand how utterly soul-crushing the impact of the fires have on your communities. The devastation of your neighborhoods, your memories, your favorite places, the landmarks that you have driven past for decades......all gone.....and not just gone, but now a heart-breaking landscape of twisted metal, ash, blackened concrete, lifeless trees, the piles of rubble that used to be the safe place for thousands of families.....

The LA area is one of the most active "car places" in the US, so we have many customers and friends, and family, that have lost everything. Our small community here in Oregon was directly in the path of one of the 2020 Labor Day fires. In person, seeing your neighborhoods in all shades of gray and black, with homes completely burned out, cars, trucks, trailers, just skeletons of distorted metal, was unreal. Being in the middle of it in person, is nothing like what you see on TV - there is no channel to turn, you can't move on to something else, you can't turn it off when it becomes too hard to watch. It's just always there, all around you, destroyed homes and livelihoods.

When folks, who are sincerely trying to help, say "oh, it's only stuff".....sometimes that really stings. It was YOUR stuff! Memories, things you worked tirelessly for, things you made with your own hands, things your children made just for you.....all gone, and not ever to be replaced.

Folks who say, "well, you have insurance, just rebuild." I doubt they have ever had to fight with insurance companies for very gd dollar, then try to find any contractor who is available within the next two years, and building supplies?? Everyone needs the same things, right now, and there may not be enough to go around.

But, good things will happen! Communities have and will come together! You will cherish small miracles and milestones! You will appreciate so many things that we all take for granted. The triggers (the smell of smoke, gusty winds, sirens, commotion) will subside. The looters and lookie-lous will move on, and one by one, colorful homes will fill your neighborhood with the sights and sounds of families enjoying the sunshine again. 

Do not give up hope: be mad, be sad, be shocked, be numb, feel all you want to feel, but please know that it will get better, you will find a routine to get you through the day, you will do the things you need to do, you will find a way to create a new home, make a new start, get new things to fill that home, and you will be stronger for it.