Treasures found in the rubble is the subject of this week’s Feel-Good Friday.
Thanks to the incredible work of firefighters and first responders, helped by some much needed rain, the major California wildfires are mostly contained. With a visit from President Donald Trump, who verbally slapped around the elected officials who previously had their thumbs up their hindquarters, victims of the Palisades and Eaton fires were finally allowed to go to their fire-destroyed property to see if there was anything salvageable.
The Eaton Fire is 99 percent contained, and burned over 14,000 acres. The historical city of Altadena was impacted, with many residents losing their homes. Brian McShea and Stephanie Raynor had moved to their Altadena home a year prior. Once the evacuation order had been lifted, they were told by their landlord that the home was “completely gone”:
Much like thousands of families who lost their homes in the devastating Los Angeles wildfires, Brian McShea and Stephanie Raynor of Altadena have been spending their time sifting through the rubble.
The couple had only moved into their home about a year ago. Then, on January 7, they were forced to evacuate.
“I’m taking Altadena Drive and heading out, and I see Eaton Canyon at 6:20 or 6:30, and I’m like, ‘Oh my God. There’s a fire,'” recalled McShea. “The next day I woke up from an email from our landlord saying the house is completely gone.”
They, thankfully, had been able to get their pets to safety. But they left the house with only the clothes on their back. When they returned, everything else was lost:
“As soon as we walked up, it really hit us,” said Raynor.
For McShea, that included the engagement ring he had just purchased. He was planning to propose to Raynor soon, but the ring was in the back of his now-charred desk drawer.
As McShea and Raynor went through the rubble looking for anything salvageable, McShea surreptitiously tried to look for the ring in hopes that it survived.
“I was thinking, ‘Well, maybe the stone can survive and maybe we’ll find the little stone.’ I thought the ring was going to completely disintegrate,” said McShea.
When they were digging through the rubble, he made it a point to look through one specific area.
“I was like, ‘We’re going to look over here where my desk is,'” said McShea. “I did not tell her why. I don’t know what [she] thought we were looking for because it was pretty obvious that a lot of my stuff was gone. So we’re digging around where my desk is … again, just looking for a stone man [sic]. I really didn’t have a lot of hope, but you just brush away some rubble and there’s a little ring, and you pick that up and it’s actually a washer to something, and that happened like four times, and then you pick it up, and there’s a little diamond. I was on my knees and I was like, ‘Hey, will you marry me.'”
The line from one of my favorite movies (“When Harry Met Sally”) comes to mind: “When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.”
That’s exactly what McShea did, and it is wonderful.
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Last week, another couple from the iconic Pacific Palisades community, who were victims of the Palisades Fire, were also making their way through the rubble looking for anything that could have possibly survived:
“You know, 10 years ago, I put a ring on her finger to get married and to start our life. And never in a million years did we think that 10 years after that, we’d be standing on top of the rubble and debris of our house,” David Glassman said.
The family was forced to evacuate with minutes to spare leaving everything behind except the clothes on their back.
“There was no time because I got the evacuation notice and so, I just thought, I, you know, the most important thing is getting our family out. And we did, and at the end of the day, we did lose everything, but it’s just things,” Layla Glassman said.
The couple searched the rubble to find anything that could be salvaged.
The Palisades Fire is 100 percent contained, with 23,448 acres burned. There are still issues with residents being able to return to their property to clear it so they can assess whether they can rebuild. However, David and Layla Glassman managed to be able to return to sift through the wreckage of what was once their dream home. While hoping against hope, and in the midst of total destruction, they found Layla Glassman’s wedding ring:
The pair found their safe burned and busted open by the intense heat. Nothing inside of it survived except Layla Glassman’s diamond wedding ring.
“When I saw that, it was just pure joy. It was pure joy. I thought, I thought I was never going to see it again … I’m so happy. I’m not taking it off my finger for a long time,” she said.
The couple says they believe it is a sign of hope amid the devastation and a sign that triumph and beauty can come from tragedy.
“This is hope for us too, and hopefully one day we’ll be able to get this back on her finger. I don’t know if they’ll be able to do that, but this is hope for us. Finding this little, this little thing here is certainly a step in the right direction,” Robert Glassman said.
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While not a diamond, when Lynn and I married, I was gifted with the gold wedding band his father gave to his mother. His parents were married for 45 years before his father passed away from lung cancer. So, his mother entrusted me with the family heirloom which was a symbol of their love. The solid gold circle and the many years of marriage it represents will always be cherished, special, and a symbol of marital fidelity, strength, and longevity. I know the found treasures of those diamond rings will have profound significance to these couples. I hope those symbols continue to be a metaphor for relationships that can withstand anything, even the heat of raging fires.
