Thirty-Ninth Street

 

When I was very young age’s five to nine almost ten years old, we lived in an apartment on Thirty Ninth Street. It was two bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom and a really big living room. We lived there for around five years. This was enough time for me to accept this was going to be my home for a very long time.  

Unfortunately, that was not to be. A fire erupted in the apartment below us and there was enough damage to make the floor and walls unstable. We left quickly and took what we could. I took my favorite doll and ran out with the clothes I was wearing.  We lost all our furniture and clothes and dishes and food because of soot and fire odor and the fire department damage.  

Our little family was displaced and the whole event was disorienting. I felt ripped from my sweet home where we were safe and ate delicious meals and watched TV.  

We were lucky we had family in the same neighborhood and stayed with them until we got a new apartment, which didn’t take long.  

Life goes on and all our belongings were replaced. When I was in High School and I met a friend who lived nearby. She invited me to her home on a Saturday to hang out.  

As we walked to her home, I recognized my old home. I forgot all about the fire and I did not say anything. We went into the building to apartment 1A. At that moment my heart raced and I blurted out with excitement that I lived in this same apartment years ago and explained about the fire. My friend and her family were amazed at my story and had not heard about the fire.  

Internally something strange happened, I had an emotional shift. I never had the chance to process what happened to us so many years ago. I blocked the whole event out of my mind. In that moment I got a chance to mourn my short stay in this apartment and being ripped form my home. I got the chance to feel younger and remember being safe and I got to see how my old apartment was redone rather than destroyed and I finally felt like I came full circle and got closure.   

Leaving my friends home, I felt different, older, unblocked with a new energy. I was no longer holding the past and it was amazing. 

Georgia