There's nothing like being thankful for being alive.

[Jon Brakel]

Pounding on the door invades my dreams. Screaming and pounding, pounding and screaming. When I finally wake up I look at the clock. It's a little past 3:00 in the morning. Becky is heading toward the door. Maddisen is yelling having been startled awake. Most of the people in our building know that Becky is a nurse. It happens about once every two years. A knock in the middle of the night. Someone needs first aide or wants to know if they should go to the ER. But this was different. There was more screaming but I heard that one word that sprang me to my feet. Fire.

As the adrenaline flushed my system I pulled on pants and headed toward Maddisen's room. On the way I discerned that the fire was on the other side of the fire wall from us but it was huge. I told Maddisen to get dressed and meet by the door. I put on a sweat shirt and shoes, put on my back pack, Maddisen screamed out if she could take her turtle. I looked out the window. Yes, but quickly. We left. The heat outside our door was intense. The light blinding. We made our way to the safety of the parking lot. Hugs exchanged with our neighbors that knocked on our door. Prayers said for our neighbors on the way to the hospital. We watched at least five local fire departments fight the fire. I used the bathroom of a stranger down the street.

Frantic calls to Maddisen's cell phone as neighbors and friends heard and saw the flames and sirens and news reports. I did not grab my cell phone. I tried to sleep in the car but what was so easy at 2:55 in the morning was impossible at 5:00 am. Another friend/neighbor tracked Becky down through work. Work called Becky and we called the friend. We had breakfast at the friend's house. I fell into a fitful sleep on their recliner.

We were able to return to our apartment at 10:30am and were happily surprised that the smoke smell is not very bad. It stinks in the hallway but not too bad in our apartment. Every once in while we get a whiff of some bad smells...as if there's a cloud of it some where that makes the rounds. We made sure we were completely closed in here and turned off our outside ventilation since it smells worse outside.

It feels so good to be alive.

Here's links to the pics that I took. http://s266.photobucket.com/albums/ii242/brakels/2008%20fire/

Here's two of the pics:
Our apartment is just to the right of the charred remains. Thank God for fire walls and local ordinances!

[can't putt]

Glad you guys are all right.  Scary stuff.


Cool pics though!

[El Mexicano]

Glad to hear you are all ok. If there is anything I can help with, let me know.

[Jon Brakel]

Glad to hear you are all ok. If there is anything I can help with, let me know.

We are fine and don't need help but appreciate the offers that we have had all day. We have renters insurance. I recommend it to everyone that rents. When we were sitting in our car watching a hundred firemen fight the fire Maddisen was very worried about our apartment and what would happen. I told we're all safe, even the turtle. Everything else is stuff. Stuff can be replaced. That's what insurance is for. The neighbors that we met that are now homeless had places to stay for as long as they needed with nearby family. We heard that one of the injured died and two others were in the hospital. They probably need the kind of help that does not come easy. Becky did think to grab the pdga fees on our way out so if our place had burned we would not have had to have a fund raiser event to pay the fees for IOS #6!

[CEValkyrie]

Glad to hear you are ok Jon. Tell Becky and Maddisen I am thinking of you all. 

We didn't need a Jon Brakel memorial on the IOS Tour this year.

[OvEr HaNd AsSaSiN]

crazy story. glad you are ok.. i was part of a fire about 6 years ago.. are garage caught fire and part of our house... it was a tramatic time.. getting awake from your sleep and having to abandon your house and everything you own...

[duain]

glad to here the brakels are ok.

[dana]

Wild stuff.  Glad you came out ok.

[jimklem]

Jon, I am truly glad your family is OK!!!
Maddisen has got to stop smoking in bed!

[Mike Clark]

Glad to hear you and your family are okay.

[Jon Brakel]

Glad to hear you are ok Jon. Tell Becky and Maddisen I am thinking of you all. 

We didn't need a Jon Brakel memorial on the IOS Tour this year.

But when the time comes I was thinking that I wouldn't want a moment of silence or a minute of noise. I think I would want every player to have a minute of Italian beef with hot peppers at the end of the player meeting. Perhaps just like 3 or 4 inches of Italian beef for each person. Something that most people should be able to wolf down in a minute. That would put a smile on my face and would honor me for who I was.

[tacimala]

I'll eat an italian beef in your pre-honor for lunch tomorrow now! Glad to hear everyone is safe!

[Chainmeister]

I'll eat an italian beef in your pre-honor for lunch tomorrow now! Glad to hear everyone is safe!

I'm with Taylor.  I will have a regular sized Italian Beef and will savor it.  No one minute wolf down.  I will have hot peppers to remind me of the fire and dipped in the gravy to remind me of the firefighters dousing the flames.  After a satisfying sandwich I will roll up the wax paper when I am done and toss it into the basket to remind me that Jon is the putting guru and that he and his family are alive and well.  After that I will probably burp.    or worse... but will do so in tune in support of the Wheeling H.S. Band.

[Jon Brakel]

Now, I'm getting hungry. Guess I'm going with an Italian beef for lunch today also. You know what one of the worst things about SE Michigan is? There's no Italian beef. We gotta get Dick Portillo over there to save them!!! I don't think Bruce even knows what an Italian beef is.

[tacimala]

OK so I didn't eat italian beef today, but I did eat tasty Taco Bell in your honor. Does that count?

[mirth]

Only if it had Fire sauce on it...

[tacimala]

Is there any other?

[damonshort]

...chiming in late, but I'm delighted to hear you're all safe!!! You're good people, and we need all the good people we can get... 

[airspuds]

chiming in late, but I'm delighted to hear you're all safe!!!
i concur with previous poster thoughts     

my it could be worse than it was story of the week

the golden child got into a car accident
child  OK   which is the important thing
car not so much - but that s why you have insurance

oh and the new refridgerator is making funny sounds

when these things occurs it just reminds you to
"dont sweat the small stuff "
and refocuses u to what  really is important