Messages from the Four Winds

From Susan Bono 11/8/17:

A few days after the Tubbs Fire scattered the Varenna Writers to the four winds, as one of them has written, I began hearing reports. Most were written in haste, but to let me know they were safe. Here are some of these messages, which even in their brevity, convey the magnitude of this event. 

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From Renee and Hal Peters on 10/11/17: 

Hal, Rusty and I are safe with my sister in Marin.

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From Sandra Rennie on 10/10/17: 

We did not leave until we awoke at 7 a.m. Villa Capri was engulfed. We only saw our neighbor Rosewitha Fischer who is 90-plus—no car and no family. We took her with us. We could barely see due to black smoke. Some men from Cal Fire drove in and helped to manually open our garage. Both sides of our drive out had fire. Both sides of Fountaingrove had fire. The Fountaingrove Inn was afire and completely destroyed. We were able to drive south on 101. It was very slow. As we had nothing but the clothes on our backs, we stopped in Corta Madera to buy underwear and a sweatshirt and basic toiletries. Our son has a house at Stinson and that is where we will be tonight.

 

From Sandra on 11/6/17: 

You may be wondering where all your students have gone. I think the answer is to the four winds.  Nick and I have landed in Saddlebrooke, near Tucson, where we own a small house that we traditionally spend a month or two in and otherwise rent out (during high season January through April). I suspect each of our experiences and adventures (if you can call the uncertainty and stress an adventure) are unique and I also suspect that most of us are writing down our thoughts. So far, I have written only one piece because i have been completely taken up with the day-to-day necessities of living while moving around. We stayed in five different places while waiting to get back into our undamaged unit at Varenna to collect, among other things, the keys to the Arizona property.

In the meantime, Nick and I plant to return at the end of December and I look forward to seeing you in the early new year.

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From Leona Biddle on 10/24/17:  

I meant to email you earlier but being “homeless“ is work. (Smile!)

I am fine. I will let you know when we get back in 3-4 weeks. 

We, Norm and I, drove our cars to CVS parking lot and moved to his friends’ house for two nights, then a week at Doubletree inn Rohnert Park, four days in Los Altos Hills with my friends, now back at Doubletree until 11/15. After that??

It’ll take a while to get back to normal. 

Lots to write about!!

Lots of miracles! 

Didn’t make grandson’s wedding in Seattle this last weekend. 

I miss all of our friends. 

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 From Karin Fitzgerald on 11/7/17: I have my computer now and have started writing my experience on the morning of October 9th as I evacuated Varenna in my pajamas at 4:30 a.m.

I’m renting a small nice apartment in Emeryville, close to my son and daughter-in-law in Berkeley. Once a week, my daughter, Denise, drives from Santa Rosa and stays overnight; kind of like a slumber party.