Let me set the scene for you. It’s Sat. December 22nd…3 days before Christmas and 70 or so people are milling about enjoying our Annual holiday party – their coats stashed safely in my son’s bedroom. As people begin to leave for the night – some remark that his room smells a little smoky. We go in there – seeing nothing – go back to the party. (Kids were having an overnight with their grandparents!).
Fast forward to 2 am when we’re ready to go to bed. Our friend from Boston is staying the night with us and he and my husband decide they really need to figure out this smell. My husband rummages around in our sons room and yells to me “Lynn, call 911” My son’s closet ceiling is hot he says. He grabs a towel and pull down the recessed lighting fixture and sure enough – the rafter in our attic is ON FIRE! Holy moly…the 911 guy tells me to get out of the house. So I grab Jellybean (the dog) and head out.
3 cop cars, 6 fire trucks and an ambulance proceed to invade our neighborhood. Smoke is billowing from our attic, but our smoke detectors in the house never went off. (note to self: install smoke detectors in the attic)
My attic is FILLED with my children’s Christmas presents!
I can’t say enough nice things about the Yarmouth Fire & Police departments – and how lucky we are to know so many of the fine folks there. They did all they could to not damage our house and even moved the presents out of harms way.
Our house was fine – some minimal damage that costs far less than our homeowners insurance deductible. But I gotta say – that next morning I was grateful for the insurance that I do have. I just cannot fathom the thought of losing everything – our memories, our clothes, our furniture…everything.
Frankly – it made me look at my job in a different light. I’m under no false pretense that everyone loves insurance – I get it that some people feel they are paying for a product that they may never use (if they are lucky), but in that moment when I realized how quickly everything could have been gone – I was very, very thankful that I would have been covered.
Now…if only I could have come up with a reasonable explanation as to why Santa’s presents smelled a little smoky…
