Comment: After the fires from the front in the 70s, 80s and 90s, start from the front

Toothbrushes. Slippers. Hearing aids. Walker.

One day you have all your things. The next day it is gone and they start over – something you never expected in the 70s, 80s or 90s.

“We had to buy underwear on the first day,” said Diane Williams, 86, who lost her 100-year-old English Tudor house two months ago and now delivers a Pasadena apartment that serves as a temporary house.

She bought a couch, a kitchen table, some lamps and a new bed for Tommy, her 13-year-old terrier.

“It is piece by piece,” said her 89-year-old husband Verne that she had redeemed again. “One day I go a few more shirts or get a few pants. I had to get shoes twice before I had this couple that I like. “

After the devastating fires of Eaton and Palisades, it can be a nightmare to be a nightmare at all ages, but older adults have an additional burden – the practical and psychological challenges at the beginning of a new life when the time starts.

When they lost their house in the Palisades Fire, Joe and Arline took Halper, 95 and 88, in a grandson and began to trigger their options. They had always hoped to live their days in their house, but the reconstruction could take years.

“It makes no sense at our age,” said Joe.

Diane Williams is framed by part of her house, which was destroyed in the Eaton fire.

“In the beginning I was really shocked and thought: 'What will happen to us?' This was not in our plan, ”said Arline. “We didn't even have a toothbrush … so I was just overwhelmed. I would go to CVs and just wander around without knowing where to start. “

One day Arline bought kitchen stocks when she saw a cutting board that triggered a memory and she broke out in tears. Her son had made one for her almost half a century ago when he was a student at Paul Revere Junior high, and it was lost in the fire.

“It is just so emotional, and they try to displace it and get ahead and be grateful for what they have,” said Arline. “And yet everything is there, all these memories.”

The Halpers have a good friend and former Palisades neighbor named Alice Lynn, whose house survived. But Lynn, a therapist who is in the mid -1980s, does not know when to return, and she is in the middle of another temporary home.

“Moving is discouraging,” said Lynn, as well as the chaos of shift, especially for older people who find comfort in familiarity and routine.

“Where is the spatula? Where is the coffee cup? “Lynn asked, and how can you know how long it will sign from a rental agreement if you have no idea when the fire camps will be removed from your property?” It is as if your whole life has been converted into this parallel universe. “

In Altadena, Kathi and Ed Ahnstedt, both 77, lost their apartment in the Eaton Fire. They evacuated in a hurry and left their hearing aids. The fire also destroyed Kathi's cell phone, her walker and her CPAP at the machine.

Kathi and Ed Ahnstedt see a handful of Kathi's snowy figure, which they recovered from their apartment in Altadena, which was destroyed in the Eaton fire.

But she didn't want to talk about that:

“What I miss the most,” said Kathi, “is my Christmas matters.”

She lost hundreds of ornaments, and the fire swept a few dozen miniature Christmas villages that were composed for the next holiday season.

“I leave my Christmas tree all year round and decorated,” said Kathi. “I changed it every month. Change it for St. Patrick's Day. It had 40 or 50 years of ornaments. It was almost fixed ornaments. Not like one all five inches or something. “

All of this was burned together with the artificial tree.

But there was a miracle in the Mendocino Street. A few dozen of the porcelain snow baby figures from Kathi's collection, which counted in the hundreds, survived the inferno, although the shelves they were burned down.

A few snow babies from Kathi Ahnstedt's collection were recovered from the ruins of their house.

“We looked where they fell when the roof broke off,” said Kathi, and there they were mostly intact, mostly buried in the ashes. Her daughter Michelle searched through the debris and said that the search and rescue mission could still appear more survivors.

Kathi cleaned the figures with baking powder paste and she also has a bit of shopping.

“Ed is here and I don't want him to hear that, but I already have 12 new nutcrackers,” confidante Kathi, adding that she also replaced some of the lost snow babies. “I somehow went crazy on Ebay.”

Ed knew more than he allowed to his wife and explained that he was a wise one, but honor a personal code:

“I only refuse to say something because happy woman, happy life.”

The Ahnstedt's living in the house of her daughter in La Cañada Flintridge while drawing plans to build an ADU in your garden. It will be a big adaptation, but “we are gold compared to other people,” said Kathi, who is not the only one who has lost her most valuable possessions. Ed, which produces custom -made fishing rods and roles for his livelihood, lost all of his supplies. But like his wife, he rebuilt his collection and has already built a new workshop in his daughter's garden.

The Halpers are in the middle of their own unexpected transition. They never saw themselves cut out for a age group, but a few weeks ago they moved to a Playa Vista.

“I get used to it,” said Joe, a veteran of the Korean War, a long -time official and the current board member of the Los Angeles Park Foundation.

Arline, who is socially active and how her husband never felt defined according to age, goes through her own adaptation. “People are friendly and it's very nice,” said Arline about retirement provision. “But it is very age -specific and a awakening for me. And I am: 'Oh, I think I belong here.' “

Diane and Verne Williams made a different call.

Diane Williams and her husband Verne visit the place of her house. They want to rebuild to leave something to their six children, six grandchildren and two great -grandchildren.

For decades, said Diane, her house in the Braeburn Road near the Altadena Golf Course was a home and holiday holiday for her mixed family (her three children and his three children).

They want to rebuild, said Diane, as well as the rest of the family, which includes six grandchildren and two great -grandchildren.

“We may not live to see the house totally built or move into the house because we may have died,” said Diane. “So we rebuild the family as a legacy.”

And who will own the house if you are gone?

Kathi Ahnstedt looks at some of her recently bought snow babies. She lost hundreds of them in the Eaton Fire.

Your children will find out, said Diane.

“You have a choice. You can either take the insurance money and leave it up to your children or rebuild a house that is something special for the children and grandchildren. And so I think about it, and that helps me to get through every day, ”said Diane.

And wouldn't it be something for Diane and Verne to organize the first family Christmas party in the new house?

“Bring tears to my eyes,” said Verne.

steve.lopez@latimes.com