The Fire

A New Beginning

Sometimes, life hits you hard. Now and then, something happens that makes you step back and look at where you are and where you are headed. This year was one of those years for me. The year started like any other. I had aspirations of writing often, flying more and looking forward to time with my family. All of this changed one early February morning when I received a call from the police saying they were on the scene of an active fire at my business.

I rushed to the scene with a million thoughts running through my head. Upon arrival, I found firefighters dousing the last of the flames, and my hangar, including all our office and shop contents, was a smouldering pile of ash. Equally as tragic, my cherished Cessna 172, pulled from the building by the firefighters, was a charred shell of what it once was.

This scene and the feelings around it are hard to describe. Numb is the best word I can come up with. It is sensory and emotional overload. After speaking with fire and police, all I could do was return home and come back in the daylight to meet with fire officials again. As a parting gesture, the roof collapsed just as we were leaving. One more kick while I’m down to end the night

Of course, there was no way I could sleep after this, so I spent the drive back and the following hours trying to absorb what had happened, what it meant, and tried to make sense of it all. Ultimately, there was only one answer: keep going. To throw in a cheesy analogy, an aircraft only moves forward, and so must we in situations like this. There was too much to do. I had no time to dwell, feel sad for myself, or hide. Countless calls had to be made, a building and the surrounding site had to be cleaned up, and a lot of paperwork had to be done. This began a process that would fill a lot of my time and thoughts for the next several months.

In situations like this, we are forced to stop and take stock of where we are in life and our needs and desires. Flying has always been a significant part of my life. I have been flying for over half my life and an aircraft owner since I was 23. I have run my business longer than I have done almost anything else in my life. Losing all this in one night meant losing a major part of myself. Yet, it has turned out to have a silver lining. It forced me to step back and reset. A lot is going on in my life. I have a family to care for and am working towards a degree. As well as my teaching job. Add a business and aircraft ownership, and that’s a lot to juggle. Something had to give, and it is as if the universe decided for me.

That being said, you also can’t walk away from a lifetime of work and progress. So, now, we start at the beginning. Collecting what tools could be saved, we are continuing with our aviation housewares business and the online store, consulting, and writing on a much smaller scale. Aircraft will return in time. I have the incredible luck of having friends who allow me to use their aircraft so I can get my flying fix when needed. This event, while sad, has not been entirely negative. It has allowed me to scale down, realign, and set myself and the business on a new and better trajectory.

I started this year by telling all of you I was looking forward to writing to you more often. It’s time to get back to that. I’m here a little late, but better late than never. Thank you to all of you who read and follow me. Thank you for waiting. I look forward to connecting more often.

See you soon!