just when you think everything's okay

I know I've written posts in the past where I've been frustrated with my mom and alluded to various other things. But, I probably haven't been quite fair to explain that while she can be an evil pain in the ass, she also can go the opposite extreme and perhaps extend a kindness that is far beyond what is deserved. Unfortunately, her Good Samaritan behavior literally burned her last night around 5:30 p.m.

A few years ago, just before I moved back to Hawaii, my mom found a woman standing on her street with a baby boy. My mom started talking to her and found out that this woman, Christy, was leaving her abusive husband and was just wandering around. She was from Kentucky, so she had no other family or friends nearby (I can't remember if they're military or not). So, my mom (and extremely hesitant step-dad) allowed this woman and her baby to stay with them and my mom referred to the baby as her "Baby Jesus" since it was just before Christmas.

Christy then went back to her husband and would repeatedly show back up to my mom's house whenever she was "in the mood" to leave her husband again. Big surprise that a year later, she had yet another baby. My mom always took her in and fed them until Christy decided to go back to her husband, and eventually she finally found a way back to Kentucky.

So, a week or so ago, my mom tells me that she ran into Christy again on the North Shore, and she spoke to her for about an hour. She was back from Kentucky, and I was so annoyed with this woman that I didn't really pay attention to the details. But, I told my mom that Christy is beyond her help and she needs to just stay out of it and concentrate on selling her house and moving. It was my eerie sixth sense saying that something was just not "quite right."

Things were pretty rough after Bob died, which catapulted my mom into a despair that kind of dragged everyone down around her. It may sound selfish to say, but it's tough to describe unless you've been through or around something like this. Anyway, on this very phone call, my mom said that she felt like "she finally had her head out of her ass" and she was excited about selling her house and moving to South Carolina. She had received a nice offer on her house that would've provided her with enough money to live on for the rest of her life, and she was in escrow on her house in South Carolina.

She finalized the offer to house on Monday. Last night at around 5:30 Hawaii time, "Baby Jesus" himself apparently lit a match and threw it on to a pillow -- right in front of his mother. My mom was upstairs and by the time she got downstairs and tried to control it, it was too late. Though a very nice house, it was primarily made of wood and was engulfed in two minutes.

Everyone made it out safely, but she has lost everything of personal value, including all of her momentos of my step-dad, our baby pictures, etc. I have no idea how an accident will affect the insurance value, either, but I'm still in bewilderment as to how a mother watches her son obtain a match, light it and throw it.

I know that my mom is fortunately staying with friends, and I'll be spending most of my day trying to track her down (her cell phone was left in the house) and seeing if there's anything I can do. Here's a link to the story online. I have to admit part of me wants to e-mail the writer and explain how my mom was extending charity to this woman, too, but that might not be "news" anyway.

I have to admit that it's bizarre to see the house in flames and it still feels like a dream. I didn't grow up in that house, but have plenty of memories in it and it kind of represented my own safe haven from when I was fleeing Texas from my divorce.

I swear, we are one of those families that has a dark cloud hovering over us. Within our immediate family, I think we've endured every type of personal "issue" or problem possible (and I'm really not exaggerating with that for any pity, but just stating a fact). Just when it seems like we're all going to be okay and just plain happy, something else happens. Though I know this will set my mom back financially in her dreams, she'll be okay for the short-term in terms of survival. My bigger fear is how this is going to affect her mentally and if this will send her over the edge she's been teetering on for quite some time.