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Messages . . . Beneath the Ashes

from the February 2002 Newsletter

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   By Angela Moreno-Tijerina

On Tuesday evening, December 11, 2001, at 5:45 p. m., a fire broke out in a faulty electric heating unit in the General Store and Staff Quarters at Hill Country Youth Ranch’s Ingram campus.  Fire fighters from Ingram, Mountain Home, Hunt and Kerrville immediately responded to the four-alarm fire and worked tirelessly to combat the blaze.  Sadly, within two hours, the 3,500-square-foot building, valued at $200,000, was a total loss, along with its contents.  Fortunately, no one was seriously injured.

Built in 1981 with matching gifts from the Dougherty Foundation and the Moody Foundation, the General Store was among the very first Youth Ranch facilities.  The 3-story structure served as the hub of Ranch life and was the site of the first central offices.  The houseparents gathered there to get groceries, and as I have always loved to hear, the General Store is where Gary met his wife, Carol, in 1985.  And the stories go on and on.

When the Turner Foundation gave money in 1986 for an administration building, the second story of the “GS” was converted to a female staff quarters. 

“These women,” says Gary, “have been living with us like missionaries, in one-room quarters on the campus, houseparenting in the children’s residences and returning to their rooms during off-duty times.  It’s the only place they had to keep their personal things.”  At the time of the fire, seven women, Jen, Katie, Linda, Ildah, Bonnie, Jamie and Renee, all shared the GS staff quarters.  These women lost almost everything they owned.

The main floor and basement continued to be used as a central storage facility, including a large room where children’s clothes and shoes were kept.  All household items, from linens to dishes, were kept in the building to be distributed to the cabins as needed.  Appliances and furniture, donated one coffee maker and chair at a time, were destroyed.  The basement was used for food storage, housing, items purchased in bulk, and meat given to us by area hunters.  Right, Charred drawing of birds hovering over cross, survived fire, was found tacked up in original spot on art room wall.

Although the building was destroyed in the blaze, we are determined to rebuild.  However, the building was insured for only its depreciated value.  This means that the Youth Ranch must find funding for half the cost of rebuilding.

While the loss was devastating, many blessings were soon to emerge.  The night of the fire, the newly displaced women were sent to sleep in different children’s cabins, until long-term plans could be made.  Our boys and girls rose to the occasion, turning the tables on caregiving and offering comfort to the staff who had experienced personal loss.  Spoons and bowls clanked in the kitchens as they prepared food for the ladies, and sheets and blankets flew through the cabins as beds were offered and fixed for those who lost their own in the fire.  Closets were raided as our children began pulling out items to give to the ladies who no longer had shoes or sweaters of their own.  The staff organized to keep the valley running through the night, with therapists and office staff staying to counsel and comfort.  Heroically, the ladies who had lost everything kept right on working their appointed shifts.  Left, Out of a piece of insulation, a cross remains nailed to frame.

The next morning, the phones began to ring.  Long-time friends and Youth Ranch supporters called to offer prayers and assistance.  Local residents who read about the fire in the newspaper called or came by, bringing cars full of clothes and blankets to replace those lost in the fire.  The Hospice Thrift Store, Salvation Army, and our own Thrift Store in Ingram all called with the same message “Come get whatever you need.”  The Red Cross came out and met with the seven ladies, offering personal items.  A local church sent care packages with toiletries and toothpaste.  MO Ranch operated a collection site to gather donations.  The phones continue to ring.

It is difficult to be depressed about the fire while witnessing our family’s response to the event.  The night after the fire, a group meeting was held to discuss the fire and its after-effects.  During the meeting, our own children, each of them having experienced loss of one sort or another, rose one-by-one to share memories of the General Store where they met each day to ride the bus to school, and then offered their own allowance money to rebuild the building, or their time to have fund-raisers for the victims.  Jen, one of the women whose belongings were consumed in the blaze shared, “I did lose a lot of things that I can not buy to replace.  I lost photos and numerous personal items, all of my clothes, everything I owned.  However, being here at the ranch with my coworkers and especially the children, I feel like the wealthiest woman alive.” See right: After fire, a section of framing remains in the shape of three crosses.

 

 

Far left, HCYR's art therapy program, begun by Fine Arts Director Carol Priour, started in a room in the back of the General Store in 1985.  Carol is shown with students in that first year.  Left, front facade of General Store as we will remember it, with staff apartments on 2nd story. 


                      Above, A heartfelt letter we received from one of our alumni, Catherine Kilgore-Andrews.

Jen and the others helped sift through the ashes, occasionally finding a solitary shoe, a photo, or a charred piece of paper, all mementos.  One of the most amazing artifacts to survive is a single page from the Bible (photo, left), with its edges yellow and brittle. On the page is a passage from 2 Samuel 22:1-7, in which David affirms that God hears our cries of distress, and shepherds us lovingly through hardships, quoted below in part:

"In my distress, I called upon the Lord; to my God I called.  From his 
temple, he heard my voice, and my cry came to his ears."