Paige and her family devastating loss of Altadena home

So many friends are asking how they can help us. Our beautiful home in Altadena we loved and all our personal belongings are gone and have completely burned to the ground. We spent 11 wonderful years in our home. Bruce and I were married in the backyard with all our family present. I loved every minute, from the peacocks to the migrating birds and the fish pond we hand-built alongside the garden we designed. Our home was a sacred place for family, friends, and visitors from Servas and other international friends, who were welcome. It’s been a place of peace and harmony and open doors for all.

Our five children have beautiful memories with us there, and they have lost everything from their childhood. Boxes of childhood pictures, albums, and art are destroyed. All their clothes and personal items stored there are gone. There’s nothing to go back to. There is nothing to save. We only had a few minutes and chose to save the cat and our elderly neighbor and her dog. It’s awful, but we survived.

On another note, my mother moved in with us temporarily while helping my sister, a single mom of three, who also needed housing. My mom also lost everything at our home. In Altadena and other parts of Los Angeles, so many people have lost their homes, including my sister, her husband, and 3 kids, and many Altadena friends also lost their beautiful homes. Many businesses and churches in the City of Altadena are completely devastated by the fire. Our hearts are broken.

Some good news, we all are alive and well. Family and friends have offered to house us and offered us clothing and food. We stored our few things that survived the fires with my daughter Raleigh. We are staying with Bruce’s sister Robin and her husband (best friend) Scott. We have other friends from everywhere that have offered to house us. We have insurance. But one problem is Bruce works downtown Los Angeles, so we need to stay local. I’m a retired teacher and volunteer at the LA Zoo as a food prep volunteer for the primates, and I am a docent volunteer at the Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena. So we are going to stay local, rebuild, and we’re going to rent (while we still pay mortgage), and it’s going to take 2-3 years before we might be able to move back to a rebuilt home. It’s incredibly traumatizing for us to lose our “forever” home and have no place to go back to. We put our heart and soul into our home, and we are devastated.

If you want to help, it’s not necessary but appreciated! We are survivors, and we’ll be okay. We have wonderful, kind offers of help, which isn’t possible for us to accept because we’re traveling with one tiny suitcase each. Rather than coming our way to help or sending items, we require just a little bridge to help with living expenses for the next few years. We are grateful for the outpouring of love and support, and we are sending love right back to you for wanting to reach out and check on us. A big thank you for helping here on this GoFundMe campaign. ❤️ Thank you!

Love,

Paige and our family

Created by Paige LaCombe

❤️ Altadena, CA