The Fire

My husband and I had bought our land in 1972, and beginning in 1983 started to build our western ranch type house there, just behind the peak of rocks that overlooked the valley. There was a joke among all the property owners in our area.. that the first thing you do when you buy property there is to dig a big deep hole.. that is for throwing your hundreds$$$ into because living there would cost so much due to its rural location. It cost more to build, more to haul in materials, supplies, more for just the road grading and all the other things that country properties demand. And so it was. We learned in time. Over the five years that it took to finish building our house, with my income and his physical labor, it cost me over $200,000 to build the house for materials, etc. It cost my husband a hernia and physical exhaustion. He started out in his late sixties and ended the construction a very tired looking 73 or so. I felt sorry for him often, watching him put the roofing on on a hot August day when the temperature was over 115 degrees. He got so tired he had to struggle use every bit of his energy and muscle power to pull the metal roofing sheets up the roof to place and nail them. Poor guy. What a price to pay, and what a lot of love he showed in doing it for me. He wanted me to be proud of him, which certainly I was. My heart was bursting with love for him. My heart ached for him.
The fire that destroyed our home, after his death, destroyed all that he had worked so hard to build. It destroyed me too.. that his efforts were now all lost, not here anymore as a testimony to his talent, skill, hard work and our love. It hurts to think of what we did and what we lost, what he lost..he lost his life, I lost my one true love, and the wonderful house he created with love as well.
Life can be a cruel thing.