Help Aimee Recover From The Causewayside Fire

We desperately need help to get Aimee a fresh start, replace her belongings, and cover her living costs, after she lost everything to a fire on Monday.

(Pictured: Aimee's flat with the windows boarded up.)

Meeting Aimee

Hi. I'm Savannah, owner of August_21 cafe in Causewayside. Recently, our neighbours suffered a devastating fire that affected Francos Chip Shop and the above flats.

Aimee lived directly above the shop and, thankfully, was at university when it broke out.

I reached out on Meadows Chat to see if anyone affected needed help, Aimee messaged me a day later, and I invited her to come and meet me.

When Aimee entered the cafe, she was shaken, lost and scared, yet she kept offering me help. We sat together as she told me about the kindness of strangers, people over the road offering her a place to stay, food and drink, and words of advice. Aimee told me she was still wearing the same clothes from Monday but had managed to wash and dry them in the sun, so I "shouldn't worry, everything is okay". The backpack she was hugging for dear life, the shoes on her feet, the clothes on her back- she had left the flat on Monday at 9 am to go and work on her PhD, not knowing by 11:30 am it would be all she had left.

What struck me immediately about Aimee is that despite all the trauma of the recent events, she was desperate to be helpful to me. I had given her some footwear and clothing and helped her begin applications for government assistance. I then had to spend quite some time trying to convince her that I did not need her to do some work for me in exchange for my help. Aimee was determined to pay for the tea she had ordered, help tidy, or use her design skills to benefit the cafe. I told her the best way she could help would be to process the events, rest, eat, and be gentle with herself.

I listened to her talk about her family back home in China, her PhD dissertation on design, and her panic at losing everything so close to the start of her final year at university.

Aimee is an incredible artist and insanely intelligent. She's had offers to publish her thesis, and I was in awe when I saw some of her artwork. There were tears, hugs, and even laughter as we talked about her beloved potato plant, thriving nonchalantly in the window, as if it hadn't just suffered intense fire followed by icy powerful jets of water.

(Pictured: Aimee's potato plant on the right windowsill, just chillin')

We've agreed that whilst Aimee stays in Glasgow with friends for a few days to recoup, I'd start this GoFundMe so that when she's back in Edinburgh, we can greet her with good news.

Logistics

Here's what we need funding for:

What else are we doing?

We will sell some of Aimee's art in the cafe, with the proceeds going to her. Luckily, Aimee took some scans of a few of her pieces before the fire destroyed them all, and we can use these to make some prints. Sadly, we don't have the budget to hire Aimee to paint our walls, and I'm not going to let her work for free, so I'm helping Aimee to promote her graphic design business so she can make an income for herself and feel independent again.

Thank you so so much for your help.

(Pictured: Francos after the blaze was extinguished)