Fire!

The New Year is approaching, 1987. I was torn between the welcoming of a fresh start and the continued saga known as my life. My parents were living at Houghton Lake, Michigan in the summer months and Haines City, Florida in the winter.  My Dad had been retired for five years and loving every minute of it on the golf course.  He retired at 49 from General Motors and I thought for sure he'd find some thing else to do, but he spent his time doing what he wanted. I admire my Father for many reasons.

He started organizing Bingo for the new community clubhouse.  My father never played Bingo a day in his life, but he saw the need and desires of others who wanted this weekly activity in their community so he organized it and managed it.  He learned everything you needed to know about running a non profit Bingo in a manufactured home community and he did this for almost twenty five years. He played golf daily and organized several leagues both in Michigan and Florida. Over the years, he turned hobbies in to little money making ventures for himself.  He would hunt for lost golf balls on the course, clean them up and resell them.  I always thought he should charge more than three dollars a dozen, but he did it for fun.It was a way for him to prolong his time on the course.

Later he started changing out grips on clubs and turned this little hobby into a nice little money maker for himself. He sat on the Board of the community, holding many different elected positions.  My Dad is just a nice guy. He has always been my rock as I am very much like him in many ways, but it took me years to see just how much.

My brother and his wife were expecting their second child and my nephew and Godson had just turned four. My brother lived in Grand Ledge. We never were very close as siblings and even more distant as adults He was very much like my Mother on so many levels.  And he and I were like night and day.

He worked for General Motors now as did his wife. He had difficulty in social settings and it made it difficult for him to work in the environment of a factory. If you think children are mean in school, adults can be just as cruel, especially if they know your weakness.

My brother did not know how to roll with the punches.  He, like my Mother took everything to heart. Like my Mother, my brother would take the facts he might know and mix them with the facts he thought he knew and weave it into his own story line, acting on it and often hurting those he loved. He never asked questions, he made assumptions based on little to nothing.

His actions would be sharp and biting.  My Mother allowed him to be this way as a child and it festered over time to a point that he broke her heart. He died on  my Mother's birthday in 2005.  They had not spoken to one another in over seventeen years.

Michael and I headed to Toronto for New Year's Eve. We spent the day exploring the area.  I had been to Toronto several times with Killer, but never did I have the fun that Michael and I shared.  We were getting ready to go out dancing that evening.

I have meet two men in my life that take longer to get ready than me.  Michael was one of them.  This man would spend more time on his hair than a woman! I can be ready to go in thirty minutes or less depending on how  much time I want to spend applying makeup. My hair is naturally curly, so it is wash and wear ready at all times. I do not spend more than two or three minutes on my hair.

He was ready for the evening.  I usually waited until he was done primping to get ready myself as I hate waiting for someone when it is time to go. I had just stepped out of the shower and had a towel wrapped around me as I was putting my contacts in.  The fire alarm sounded in the hallway and all hell broke loose.

You could hear the occupants from other rooms in the hall scurrying to the stair well as they made their way to safety.  The hotel was packed for the holiday. Announcements over the intercom from management instructed those to leave their room immediately and take the stairs. Michael was about to have a herd of cows as he stood there gathering his personal belongings to take with him.

I, on the other hand, continued to put in my contacts and apply my makeup.  I was in no hurry to seek shelter from this towering inferno.  We were on the 12th floor for cripes sake! The stair well would be jammed up with others fleeing this disaster. I had time to at least get dressed! I stood there with a towel wrapped around me popping my  other lens into my eye.  Michael was pacing back and forth worrying that we were not going to get to safety in time. He was yelling at me to hurry up and I was growing inpatient with his demands.

I suggested he go without me if he was so worried about escaping this life threatening disaster, I'd catch up with him, but he refused to go without me.  I threw on whatever I could find and grabbed my purse.  He wondered why I was not taking my things with me.  Very calmly I explained that I did not smell smoke, I had not heard fire engines, I expected to return to the room to finish getting ready soon. And even if I suspected there was a true fire, did I really want to cart my stuff with me? It would only hold me up further and be cumbersome to carry down twelve flights of stairs.  He left his stuff and we headed down to the lobby.

Now, here is the thing that I do not understand about the  human race.  People are frantic to get to safety, but as we opened the door to exit the stairwell, there was no place to go.  Everyone was gathered in the lobby.  Many dressed and many had been in the middle of getting ready to ring the New Year in. No one was rushing out in to the street for fear the building would collapse on them as it burned to the ground. Who wanted to go outside in December in Toronto.  No one was rushing us to clear the area, we all just mingled  in the lobby as though it was a social hour before the clock ticked midnight.  Within a half an hour, we were released to return to our rooms.  I finished getting dressed and Michael unpacked for the second time since our arrival.