My Journey: heading to Tennessee Sept.2005

Our burnt chaps and jackets, burnt R.V. ...............




So I was able to make my phone calls. I called my sister, she said she'd called the Red Cross and got things set up for when we got there. As much as we dreaded leaving the comforts of the motel room, we did. We got to my sisters in Crossville Tenn. It was great seeing them. The next few days we spent running from the Red Cross to others that helped us. The churches gave us some clothes and food. We got a paper from Red Cross to get a few new clothes and some food from Walmart. Things were still hectic all the running. Well the week-end came, my sister was gun ho about getting her swimming pool down, and mowing her 5 acres of land. We were up at 7am. And she starts giving orders. We had plans for that day to go look at a R.V. so later in the day sfter her and her husband had gotten drunk, words were spoken. I said we don't need this, after all we'd just been thru. They said "You are out of there now. you need to get on with your lives" Well it wasn't that easy. maybe for them, but not for us. So I called the Red Cross lady and she put us in a motel again. Days went by..... and we'd gotten the $2,000 from fema. So we went looking for a R.V. so we could go home. We'd called Fema for a trailer but they said it would be awhile. We found a R.V. for $4,000 and bought it. We loaded it with all our wordly possessions. We'd gotten a microwave, and a coffee pot, and all the necessities we would need to survive back in Pearlington. We left headed for home! We were so happy to be going back to nothing, but it was home. We had just gotten south of Chatanooga and stopped for gas and a rest at a place called Rising Fawn. We got situated and ready to go. I had pulled up beside Will waiting to go. I heard the starter sticking. I told him "Stop trying to start it" He said "He wasn't"He took the keys out of the ignition and it still did it. Then we saw smoke coming out from under the hood. I ran and got the dog and put him with me. Will grabed a fire extinguisher, and I ran into the station "Yelling to call the fire department". A man had a fire extinguisher heading out the door. Will at that time was busy trying to unhook the U-haul trailer with his motorcycle and extra gas cans in it, to get it away from the blazing R.V. Luckily 5 or so other men went and helped him get it off and pushed away. So all we could do was sit there watching all our wordly possessions going up in smoke. Before we left I'd tried getting in touch with my ins. co. but to no avil could I. So I said we'll just get it home then I'll get it straightened out. Finally the fire truck got there but it was too, too late. The fireman was able to save a few things , but not much. Luckily our $$ was saved. It was under the bed matress in a big yellow envelope. So all me and Will could do was hug each other and cry. The police man called a motel and got us a room back in the closest town, which was Trenton, Georgia. We had to wait for the fire and police report. Those were the nicest people you'd ever want to meet. Now we had a U-Haul with no way to pull it. We ended up buying a truck so we could pull the U-haul, luckily the $ didn't burn up! And we ended up in a fema trailer park in Guntersville Ala. where some of Wills relatives were staying. We both got a nice trailer to live in. But it still wasn't home....We were back to before square one..God Bless............