To Contemplate the Loss of Everything…

There was a fire…

I never saw it, but it was there. I was too busy living in my own world that I didn’t notice the time where some people lost everything.

I can’t even imagine what it feels like to have to come home to a pile of ashes.

Could you?

How do you overcome such a tragedy of losing, literally, everything?  How do you go through such an obstacle?

There was a fire that destroyed a lot of homes here in my city.  One of those unfortunate people is my colleague, who hasn’t come back to work for a week now since she doesn’t have her uniforms anymore (here in the Philippines, nurses still wear the traditional white uniform with the cap).  The fire burned everything down.  All she had were the clothes she had on her back and her things in the bag she was carrying that night.

Thinking about it, I could never put myself in those shoes.  I don’t mean to sound materialistic in any way, but what about all those memorabilias that you had?  Photographs, keepsakes and your personal basics…?  Everything gone just like that.

I shudder at the very thought.