xDC -

Thats really a crummy break that your mother got, but its important that she remember she is alive and well. Most of her material things can be replaced.

I know what she's going though, and I speak from experience when I say this - she'll get over it.

Twenty nine years ago, just before Thanksgiving, I got a call at work from my downstairs neighbor. My apartment was on fire. I raced home (on what was agonizingly the longest 30 minute subway ride of my life) only to find the firemen "cleaning up" their equipment. I asked one of them about my cats. He said they found one and put him into a box in the courtyard. Not fully understanding I raced into the courtyard to find the box with the dead cat inside. I raced upstairs, and through my tears and remaining smoke I saw a sight I'll never forget. The walls were TOTALLY charred starting at four feet off the floor. Everything had been consumed, and, in a state of shock, I started calling the name of the other cat hoping that he'd answer. Of course he didn't. I found his body under the bed. I placed his body in the box with his brother and called my wife to come home.

ALL of our possessions were lost. We salavaged some pieces of wood furniture (and for years afterwards whenever it was humid the smell of smoke was still evident despite all the cleanings) but our greatest sorrow was the loss of our two cats.

Out of tragedies SOMETHING good always comes. In my case this something was a different side of my father that I had never seen before.

My wife and I stayed with my parents for about a week until we found a new apartment. The first night there we sat down for a few drinks, feeling totally miserable. My father sat down with us, and told us that he understood how we felt. I almost cried my response that he couldn't have understood because he never had a pet (that I had known of). He then told a story about when he was a kid. He had a dog, a German shepherd, that he absolutely loved. The dog ran off its leash and was killed by a truck. My dad, had tears in his eyes when the story was over. He was the toughest son-of-a-bitch I ever knew and he never spoke of that dog again. (The story was "verified" by my aunt, my dad's younger sister, some years later). I looked at my father differently after that.

Anyway, all that aside, I hope your mom is able to pick up the pieces and get on with her life. Whatever the difficulties are between you two I hope you can overcome them. Life is too short to harbor grudges ESPECIALLY with a family member.