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For one Choctaw family, flames leave little but memories

 
BY AARON CRESPO | Published: April 14, 2009   

As fires neared Christina Myers’ home Thursday, she had moments to decide what to save.

"My husband asked me, ‘What means the most to you?’” she said.

photo - Red Cross volunteer Liz McKeel, upper left, gives relief items to Christina Myers, bottom left, and her daughter, Braylin Stilwell-Love, 8, Monday at a Red Cross field office in Midwest City. Photo by Nate Billings, The Oklahoman
Red Cross volunteer Liz McKeel, upper left, gives relief items to Christina Myers, bottom left, and her daughter, Braylin Stilwell-Love, 8, Monday at a Red Cross field office in Midwest City. Photo by Nate Billings, The Oklahoman

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AT A GLANCE
How to get help

Several American Red Cross offices will help fire victims at their county offices today. Field offices set up last week have closed.

Items needed for cleaning up damaged and destroyed property are available at the following

locations:


• American Red Cross of

Central Oklahoma, 601 NE 6,

Oklahoma City.


• South Central American Red Cross, 1006 NW Blvd., Ardmore.


• Great Plains American Red Cross, 401 W Gore Blvd., Lawton.


• Heart of Oklahoma American Red Cross, 1205 Halley Ave.,

Norman.

How to help
For information about how to donate to help fire victims or to get assistance from wildfires, call 228-9500 or go to okc.redcross.org.

Another way to help
Eastside Church of Christ, in partnership with the Church of Christ Relief Effort based in Nashville, will open a relief site at 8 a.m. today at 916 S Douglas. Food boxes, infant care supplies, clothing, cleaning supplies and hygiene supplies will be available. For more information, call 732-0393.

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The family grabbed three urns and left the home she had grown up in. The urns contained the remains of Myers’ mother, father and sister.

"This has been the worst thing ever, and that’s saying a lot, actually,” Myers said.

"My mom had died, my dad died, my sister died, and all these other deaths that we had in the family. My 19-year-old niece, and there was more than that. And then all of a sudden, this happened, and this was the home I was raised in.”

Their house was one of 58 destroyed by wildfires in Choctaw. In a night, more than a century of family history was lost.

"I was the keeper of everyone’s things,” she said.

Possessions lost in the fire included a World War I sword that her great-great-grandfather had given her son, quilts that had been made by her great-great-grandmother, furniture that belonged to her aunt and many other irreplaceable items.

Myers’ home didn’t have insurance. Her mother had a policy on the home, but it lapsed after her passing.

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Related Topics: Natural Disasters, Wildfires, Accidents and Disasters

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