EVERETT – The walls are charred, the floor is black. Pieces of rug that once lined the apartment floor lie crumpled and frayed. Much of it has turned to ashes scattered on the floor.
The room is barely recognizable.
Michael V. Martina / The Herald
“This was my baby, but not anymore,” she says with a laugh.
She looks around her Wetmore Avenue Continental Plaza apartment. Five days ago, it was home to her and her 6-year-old son. Now it looks like a black lava flow has rushed through her living room.
“This is just unbelievable,” Brooks said, looking at the remains of her life’s possessions – the remains of what a fire on Monday left her.
On her door, you can faintly make out the apartment number: 306. Inside, pink fiberglass insulation hangs from the ceiling. A 5-foot-wide hole in the roof of the top-floor apartment lets in some morning sunlight.
Brooks stands in the sunlight. In the dimness of her ruined apartment, she smiles – a strange contrast to the dreary environment.
“We think so much about what’s wrong with the world, but what about what’s right with the world?” she asked. “So many people have helped us, it’s amazing.”
The Red Cross gave Brooks and her son, Styles, food and a three-day stay at the Best Western Cascadia Inn immediately after the fire.
Other local charity organizations also pitched in. Brooks will spend the next week at a hotel in Everett, compliments of Catholic Community Services. Friends such as Dani Goss also have been at her side.
“She’s an amazing woman,” Goss said, looking on as Brooks examined her living room.
Brooks, a 44-year-old single mother who is studying psychology at Everett Community College, did not have renter’s insurance. An investigation into the fire concluded it was likely a baseboard heater that ignited something on the floor and started the fire.
The investigation did not conclude if the heater was faulty, so Continental Plaza is not helping pay for Brooks’ damaged possessions.
The fire started at 2 p.m. Monday while Brooks was at school. She came home with her son an hour later and saw firetrucks near her apartment.
“I was almost emotionless,” she said. “I’m still in shock about it.”
Standing in her apartment Friday, Brooks talked about how hard she’s worked to re-establish her life. Before she enrolled at the college, it had been 27 years since she had been in school. It also has been some time since she had begun her clean-and-sober lifestyle.
“Two years, one month and one day, to be exact,” she said.
Even though her changed life has changed dramatically again, she’s certain that her belief in God will pull her through.
“There’s a lot of good things here,” she said. “God’s given us everything we need, not everything we want, but everything we need.”
Brooks looked at a seared but still faintly white spot on her wall. That’s where a piece of paper hung that told how Jesus had nothing during his time on Earth, Brooks said.
Brooks can relate to the story now more than ever.
“I’m grateful for the things I lost because life and friends are more important than things,” she said.
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