Our house was on FIRE | The Unspoken Chapter |

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Assalamualaikum and Olla everyone!

It have been 1 month and 2 days after our family go trough an impactful experience. Basically, our house caught fire. You see the light in the picture? That is our home burning. i take time before writting this post because as much as I wanted to be strong, it is not the easiest thing to do. Writing this means I have to recall the feeling. However, i also believe that struggles in life makes you become a stronger person. Maybe it could help me to get over the situation. After all, i have been capturing my life journey on this blog and it would only be fair I document this as well.

It happened on 28 March 2018. My husband and i just came back from work. Our kids are playing in the living hall. My husband was seating on the sofa. I was cooking. just a casual weekday routine, little that we know that our life is going to dramatically change. Then it happen. I saw a spark behind the hose of our stove. Less than few seconds i heard a sound “parkkkk..” like somehting came off. The fire grew big. Like very BIG, from what i recall it was taller than me. My husband tried to pour water on it. it does not help.

Then I realised that we just changed our gas two days ago, meaning the gas is full and it is not worth a fight. Heck.. it is not worth risking our kids life. We took our kids, open the door and run for help. I recalled running for our life and our kids life. Not the most fun experience at all.

Guards went up to help control the fire, fireman came. Within an hour the fire was put down. While waiting for the fire to die off, we saw our home burning. We saw our neighbours came down. Some carrying kids. They were asking around. It was dark, I heard them talking. One of them approached us and was talking about the fire. I remember smiling and say, “Yes, that’s our home”. It was ackward.

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Officially, we have no where to sleep that night. The nearest hotel is at One World Hotel. I remember being in a car with my husband and kids. Then we realised that our kids do not have milk bottle. We rush to get their supplies like diaper etc. Then check in to hotel.  Told the reception we need a room tonight as our house was on fire. The reception asked “so, do you make a booking?” LOL dam funny!!

That night, my dear friend Yukiko came to our hotel room. We ordered room service food for our kids to have dinner. Without realising we do not have cash LOL. Thank Yuki for footing up the bills and for bringing me some undies, toothbrush and few other things. I am grateful to have friends that care about myself more than me. My elder kid Sofea think we are on vacation.

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This sleeping kaftan is what I wore during the incident. Not even a bra LOL. I tend to get comfy at home and skip that. The sandal was given by one of our neighbour who saw none of my family members having shoe on. Well, when your house is on fire, Grabbing a shoes is no longer priority. My husband was wearing his work clothes. THANK GOD! or he will be running around shirtless only with kain pelikat. That would have been hilarious! I went down for breakfast with hotel bathrobe, then with the same garment  I went to the nearest convinience shop to purchase a cable charger. Then the reality hit.

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My husband is calm. He tried his best to take care of me and my kids. He brought me to One Utama and get me some clothes. This is a picture of me in the toilet. Never imagine, I would need to change my clothes in public toilet.

If you want tips, get a SAFETY DEPOSIT. It is the best investment you will ever make. I would suggest for you to keep a spare credit  card, important document like passport, birth certs, marriage certs in there because it is fire-proof. Trust me, when things like this happen, it makes all the different. Atleast you have access to your saving/cash.

The same night, my husband update his parents before his battery run out. I managed to update fb status to update friends and family before my battery run out too.

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Then we rush to police station at TTDI to make report. System down LOL okay fine, go to police station at damansara, done. it is now in record and we have our report.

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It does not end there, we also need to make report with Bomba. Lots of paperwork to be done. If you want me to share about the paperwork process then do let me know, I can churn out another post for that. Going around making reports, from one place to another is just one part. The fact that we do it while making sure our kids are fine is another struggle. I am grateful that both of my kids well behaved during the process. As if they know that daddy and mummy need to solve things.

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After we did the paperwork, we have no where to go. My husband drove us to Mount Kiara park. I remember seating the the car, with my kids sleeping at the back. I asked my husband where shall we sleep tonight? None of us know what is the answer exactly. Taking Yuki’s suggestion we decided to book airbnb. This is how the airbnb looks like. A decent temporary place.

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My anak pelarian haha.. Glad that we have some clothes left at dobi. Also my sis in law came over to pass some clothes. My brother and sis in laws helps us alot. My sis in law family also helped us alot and we truly appreciate it. My step mum and step sis came over to check up on us. To see my kids have a comfortable place to sleep gave me a relief. As long they are okay. Glad that we have some clothes from Dobi, hence my kid can still go to school without feeling less than their friends.

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Glad that our airbnb place have dobi right under the building. We can to provide our kids some clean clothes. My husband been wearing shirt to office for quite a number of days. We also have some of our kids clothes and stuff and my step mum place. Baby carrier in the car and those few other belongings. I have to mention the baby carrier, I was asked when I upload the picture of my family in Hanoi. A person asked how come we still have a baby carrier when we say our house is burnt down?  I really have no time to list down all the itmes that  is not burnt or turn to ashes. Plus, I do not owe anyone that kind of info. I assume the person is just curious.

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We make a mistake bringing our kids to the old place. You see the gas tong there? Yup, that was it. My kids is affected. I dont want to go into details. Let’s just say Sofea saw her toys, and favourite books not in the best condition. Zandria vomitted as soon we get into the house. it must have been too much for them to see the after affect. Even for adult, looking as a burnt place when you still remember how it looks like when it was still okay, it cant be a lot to absorb. The mix emotion just poured like waterfall hitting your heart and it makes breathing even harder than usual.  I felt soo guilty for bringing them over.

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That is our fan, the heat is strong enough to melt a fan and turn it into a chandelier.

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Sofea found her toys. Labbit and mr.lion. Out of all her toys, these two are the survivors. It was hidden under a table in between a chair. She seems okay when we got in the car. But she broke down at our airbnb asking about her other toys and book. My heart broke into pieces. I felt like a failure mother for not being able to protect my kids feeling and for her to experience this kind of pain at a very young age. Keep telling myself that this will help to built her character.

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See that smile? My workmate bought my kids new elephant plushie. Sofea and Zandria is soo happy upon receiving them. Thank you Sam, Alice, Suzanne, Lei Jing and Sue. For getting me some nessecities and also get books and toys for my kids.

I also would like to thank Bryan for organizing collection drive for My BU team, to my big boss Jason Lee for the assistance, to my boss Eddie and Boonphan. Also would like to thank Esther Tee for offering her place for us to stay. My ex-work mate kak Liza for also offering us her place. To my ex-uni mate Radzey and Pejal for organizing collection, to Diya my blogger friend who become one of my closes friend, to my ex-workmate ibra from Fedex, Geiorgie from YTL, also Kak Siti, to my beloved sister in law and brother, to my step mum and sis, to Stanley, Cecilia, Nannie isa, Azlinda, Kak Suriya, Ashleigh, Farah from guardian PR, Kiran from Hilton PR, elfy from Rouge PR, Sue Ann and Amanda, Number76 salon, my husband’s boss Muzafar, his work mate Taariq, Zariman Jai and Bad, From my husband family side, Thank you Ateh, Dila, Man, Fina, Haziq, Mak ngah and Pak Ngah also Mak Teh and Pak Teh. Also my husband uni-mate bek for also offering us a place to stay.  I hope i do not missed out any names.During hard times, we gained clarity. For that we are thankful.  

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You see, even the ceiling have traces of smoke. This picture is taken while contractor is still doing repair work. We are not going to stay at the same house anymore. it is too hard for our kids. my husband handled the whole situation and i am so thankful that I married such a responsible guy.

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The hardest part about this whole incident is to make sure our kids physical and emotional needs are well take care off. Zandria did not cry during the incident. She was making a blur face and did not let it out. Her personality is totally opposite of Sofea. Zandria is more like an introvert where Sofea is better at expressing herself. Zandria vomitted couple of times for couple of days. My husband and i spent out days taking care of our kids in between figuring out what’s next. I wish to tell you that it was easy, that we handled it like a pro but it is not always the case.

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Like any other storm in life, It will be followed by a rainbow. My husband secured a home for us. Which means my kids do not have to deal with the emotional struggle as much. Sofea still drawing picture of kebakaran in her books. I am still trying to convience her not to worry. mummy is here, everytime she asked me “mummy, today ada fire ke?” I cant gave her 100% confirmation, but I tried my best to give her assurance.

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This is the kitchen area of our new home. Lots of work to be done as you can see.

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Our kids were happy and decided to start exploring our new home.

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Our master bedroom. For the past couple of weeks, we have been trying out best to puchase necessity, deal with house paperworks, getting cleaners to help us out, getting the electic guy and what not to rebuild a place we can call home. Still long way to go. We enjoyed the process of putting our life back together with tremendous emotional support from our family and friends.

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Here is a sneak peak of our living room. Not yet completed. Still doing some final touch. We are no where near to completion. However, I am still very grateful for the things we have accomplished within 1 month period.  i’ll share a progress our us rebuilding and decorating our home in future post. Major love for my new wardrobe hehe.. Will share where got our inspirations and where we sourced items/furniture from. if you are interested, do stay tune for that!

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Like I said, it is still a long way to go. HAHAHAHA we are using towels as curtain for now. Can’t wait for our trusted curtain expert from Curtain Place to come over and do their magic.

In order to become the person you’re meant to be, living the life you’re meant to live, sometimes you have to go through hard times. Sometimes you have to be broken down so that you can learn, grow to release and re-calibrate. If anyone of you are in tough times, remind yourself that what is happening for you (yes it is not happening to you, it is happening for you)  is happening for a reason.

Thanks to this experience we learned alot. We learned who truly cares, we learned about who we can count on. We learn that there are a lot of kindness in the world.That some people do care. Expecially when a stranger can come up to offer me a sandal. There are people who are nice and willing to help without hoping for nothing in return. We learned that nothing is permenant. it is a long list of things we learned. For that we are truly grateful.

Thank you for staying with me. Please keep us in your prayers and I will be back with home decor blogpost hehehe… "*hint we are changing the colours of our tiles DIY” and many more DIY projects plus home improvement projects coming up. Till next blogpost, don’t forget to take it easy and smile!

Comments

  1. So glad to hear that everything is falling back into place, although slowly. Illy, be strong dear. You are a very brave and positive woman. I respect you even more :)

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    1. Yes, slowly but surely :) thank you for the kind support. Appreciate it 💖 just trying our very best. My husband deserved all the credit 😊

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  2. Kak illy memang kuat, semoga sofea dan zadrian recover cepat.
    InsyAllah semua nya ada hikmah di sebalik kejadian ni kak kan.

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    1. Liz lagi kuat 😊 amin2 i pun harap sgt dorang lupa kejadian tu n rasa secure. N yes, memang ada hikmah always 💖

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  3. Allahuakbar, I was in tears reading this.Dugaan mashaaAllah.
    Glad to know that your family is coping well.
    Kisses to the babies :*

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    1. thank you for feeling our struggle <3 better things to come insya Allah :) will kiss them on your behalf. thanks for dropping by didiey

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  4. thank you for feeling our struggle <3 better things to come insya Allah :) will kiss them on your behalf. thanks for dropping by didiey

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  5. Alhamdulillah everything's ok now. from your post, i can feel pain and sadness through out the whole situation lagi2 melibatkan anak2 :(, but you are so strong , calm and strong. InsyaAllah ada hikmah terbaik utk you and family in future.

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    1. there are others who are stronger n calmer :) my husband play vital role in keeping us together <3 yes, we do trust in hikmah <3 amin, thank you for the doa. wishing you lots of love n happiness ;)

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