A neighbor’s phone call woke Diana Morris up in the wee hours after Labor Day last year.
“‘Diana wake up. You gotta get out now. The fire’s on us,’” she remembered her neighbor saying. “I threw my kitties in the car, and the few things I had set aside, and we evacuated.”
Diana lived in Mehama along the edge of the Little North Santiam River. The Beachie Creek fire destroyed the neighborhood last September, leaving a half dozen homes standing, but taking everything else with it.
In the moments after her neighbor called, Diana grabbed her two cats, a make-shift litter box, and a handful of items she’d placed by the door in case she needed to flee. Those few possessions were the only things that made it with her as she fled to her mother’s home at Marian Estates in Sublimity.
Diana lost it all, in terms of material goods. But in another way – from a spiritual perspective – she ended up finding everything.
“When I tell people that I am truly blessed, they look at me kind of funny, like, ‘You just lost everything,’” she said. “But I have grown so much in my faith and my understanding of what is important in life and it has changed me, I think, for the better.
Diana lived in the quiet town of Mehama for 40 years, making her life on Jennie Road just off of Highway 22 in Oregon’s Santiam Canyon. Her husband passed away in 2017 and she started attending Foothills Church as she grieved the loss. She later bought a brand-new home for the property. When she moved her mom into Marian Estates, she brought the family heirlooms back to her new house.
She knew there was a wind event coming through the area on that first Monday of September last year, and that wildfires were a possibility.
“I kind of prepared and put a few things by the door, some important papers, my computer, minimal things. But it didn’t really sink in that I would never get to come back home again,” she said. Her years of working in incident management with the Oregon Department of Forestry taught her that most Oregon wildfires didn’t lead to much devastation, even when a town is evacuated.
The neighbor’s call that night separated life before the fire from life after the fire. Diana drove through thick, dark smoke and fought her way through traffic as she fled to her mom’s home. From there, both women evacuated to a hotel for a week.
She kept praying and asking God to help her throughout the events, as the life she’d built fell apart.
“As I was evacuating during the wildfires, I prayed and put my life in God’s hands. He showed me the way,” she wrote in a recent letter to Foothills, describing some of her experiences. “God has closed many doors in my life, only to open new ones.”
She contacted a cousin who was in the process of selling a home in Sublimity, and the sale was falling through. Diana told her cousin she was interested in buying the house. A sister who works in banking helped expedite a loan. Diana was able to move into the house during the six weeks it took the sale to wind its way to completion.
Each piece of the puzzle – from the rescue of her cats to the providential circumstances of finding a new home – were signs to Diana that God was taking care of her and giving her a path forward.
“I am one of the fortunate survivors,” she said, noting that some others didn’t have insurance on their homes. “From the moment I evacuated and my home burned, God began opening new doors.”
She said her biggest takeaway from the trauma of losing her home is learning that God is with her and walks beside her. She’s learned to listen and talk to Him.
“I’ve always been a believer, but when you really learn how to hear what God is saying to you and you follow His word, it makes all the difference in your life,” she said.
Losing precious family heirlooms and items that belonged to her late husband was difficult, and she misses those things, but she learned that other things are more important.
“I was safe, and my mom was safe, and my kitties were safe. That was really important to me,” she said. “I have come to realize what is important in life and it is not the belongings. It is not all the things that you acquire throughout life. It is life itself, and love and compassion for others, and for me, my renewed faith.”
Diana is one of several people our deacons assisted after last year’s wildfires. Join our Ready To Serve team if you’re interested in helping others as needs arise through this form. Thank you!
