"Single Mom of special Needs son lost Home and Everything"

As a single mom of 3 whose rented Altadena home burned down in the Eaton wildfire,

I’m devastated, especially since my youngest child Nehemiah (5 years old) is special

needs and very fragil medically complex. He has cerebral palsy, a colostomy bag and g-tube,

and his intestines sit outside of his body, along with 18 other severe medical complex conditions.

Losing our home is devastating for us not just because we’ve lost everything, but also

because of the complications this poses for Nehemiah.

Due to Nehemiah’s medical condition, he is severely immunocompromised—if he gets

sick, he ends up in the hospital. We could not evacuate to a shelter because of this, so

our only options were sleeping in my truck or bouncing from hotel to hotel—which is so

difficult given his conditions.

Losing our home and everything in it means we may have to start over with Nehemiah’s

care. I’ve spent the past 5 years fighting SO hard to get his needs met—finding the

many doctors who would listen, advocating for him with regional center and ccs and to the many doctors he see's. Late last year, I

finally felt like I could breathe for the first time in years because we got his IEP with the

school district in place, and got nursing care. So not only have we lost our home—if we

move elsewhere, we potentially have to start all over with IEPs and regional centers and

finding him the right doctors—all of which takes years and is unimaginably difficult. This

situation is a nightmare—I’ve worked so hard to pull myself out of my hole and keep it

all together for my kids, and everything I’ve worked for all these years—my home,

Nehemiah’s equipment, and all the care I’ve worked so hard to get in place for

him—has now vanished.

We had no time to prepare to evacuate. It all started out just me and my kids leaving

home riding to find an ice chest at home depot to store our food since edison notified us

that they’d be cutting the power in our neighborhood for days. But we never made it, as

the severe winds knocked everything off the shelves outside Home Depot, preventing

us to go to where the ice chests were located.

Yes me and my kids evacuated and made it out safely as 3 alert emergency messages

of evacuation came across my screen on my phone.

As we where leaving, Nehemiah’s home nurse called saying "Bridgette I just wanted to

let you know that there is a fire 8 minutes from your house". You may need to evacuate

because it's headed your way and I'm looking on the maps right now, it's close by.” I was in disbelief until I turned the corner to a fire right in front of my face. When I got

home, I grabbed only what I could. I couldn't even think straight enough to grab what

was important, as I thought I’d be able to just come back home when it's all over.

The next morning, my eldest son and I took a drive out to our home. We couldn't even

make it, as the smoke was so dark and thick and there was ashes and fire sparks flying

everywhere. We had to detour and found a side street to access our street, but even

then, I could barely see anything because of how dark and massive the thick black

smoke was. My head lights wasn't even enough to see through the smoke.

When we finally saw a street sign, my son yelled out "MOM TURN AROUND ITS

GONE". I said “what's gone?" He said “our HOME we gotta get outta here” and I said

"No it's not. We could try to make it what if it's still there??" He said "No mom, our home

is gone and if we don't get outta here we will be gone too.”

So I drove as far as I could with tears in my eyes and shouting out loud and screaming

my home is gone. Everything i owned and worked so hard for, gone--my home, my

lifestyle, my dignity as an independent single house hold mom of 3 beautiful kids, gone.

My roof over me and my kids heads gone, clothes on their backs, gone, food I just

bought with my food stamps, gone, medical equipment for Nehemiah and all his medical

records, gone, family pictures gone memories we built in that home, gone.

I don't know what to do or where to even start or how to move on from this.

I lost my home as it's burning up in flames right now. Let me cry my broken tears to

God. Let me lean on God. Let me call up to God since he is my everything when I have

nothing.

No one gets it and no one will understand how this feels until your in this situation sadly

but truthfully.

Please keep me and my kids in your thoughts and prayers.

That's is all I ask, of you want to help please share this post and help support my

Gofundme.

Thank you