One Year Ago, My Life Changed

Have you ever had an experience where you just knew that your life would never be the same?

Everything going forward would be shaped and influenced by what happened?

My wife and I had one of those moments one year ago, today.

One year ago we had to make a decision to rebuild our lives.

We narrowly escaped our apartment before it burned to the ground.

We lost everything. It was devastating. Sure, stuff is stuff, but some things are difficult, if not impossible to replace. And the trauma of being scary close to death and witnessing the destruction of your home is long lasting.

We are forever grateful for loads of friends and family and strangers who pitched in to help how they could.

People started GoFundMe campaigns. Others sent letters. Some sent essential items through Amazon. We were blown away by the amount of support we received.

A lot has happened in the year that has passed.

My wife decided to get serious about writing and finished her first short story. I kicked it into high gear with motion design and left my job to go full time freelance. Every time the fire crosses my mind, I’m reminded that this day is a gift. My gratitude meeter is through the roof.

This week I’m going work on a “making of” post for the fire diaries animation I did for Rachel’s short story.

It was a really special piece to work on. Rachel poured her heart out into her first story. It's equal parts heartbreaking and encouraging.

I've had some people ask how I made the animated title, so I'm excited to share my process.

Rachel’s fire diaries is available to read in full on her website.

Rachel also wrote a really nice blog post about the one year mark of the fire.