Minor miracles help musician cope after house fire

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This article was published 10/02/2021 (1669 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Kerri Stephens is having a hard time coming to grips with how her life has been upended over the last 10 days.

On Jan. 31, her partner woke up at 4:45 a.m. to the smell of smoke filling the bedroom loft of their home near St. Malo. A fire, later determined to be the result of a faulty electrical outlet, had broken out in the porch and was quickly spreading throughout the old wooden farmhouse.

“Had he not woken up, we wouldn’t have made it out because I was in a deep sleep,” Stephens says over the phone. “We realized that we literally had no time to get out of the house.”

She ran outside to call for help, while he tried to get their five pets out of the house. The couple and two of the dogs made it out unscathed — Stephens’ 13-year-old dog Finn and cats Pin and Kevin were nowhere to be found.

The last week has been a blur of insurance meetings, borrowed clothing and unfamiliar beds.

“It’s like we almost haven’t had a chance to really, actually feel it or grieve it,” she says. “We just want to go home.”

At the same time, a series of minor miracles has made the tragedy more bearable.

Upon hearing about the fire, people swooped in to help, including neighbours who found them an animal-friendly cabin to stay in. Others pledged financial support.

“We just feel blown away by it,” says Stephens, a singer-songwriter and former staffer at the West End Cultural Centre. “A lot of the people that have supported are musicians like me, and (they) don’t really have money to do that, especially during (the pandemic)… the outpouring of support has been beautiful.”

The couple has also been reunited with several beloved animals and objects.

Two days after the fire, their dog, Diane, went into labour and gave birth to a single puppy — whom they named Finley in honour of their deceased pet.

“We didn’t even realize that she was pregnant,” Stephens says. “It’s that balance of the universe, you lose something and then something’s gained; that, for me, has definitely helped with the grieving for Finn.”

On Monday, the family returned to the house to raise a glass and look through the rubble. They noticed cat tracks in the yard and heard a faint meowing somewhere on the property. Kevin — a grey tabby who was sleeping in the porch when it caught fire and had, several weeks earlier, survived getting hit by a car — was huddled up in a shed.

“My mind is so blown that he survived,” Stephens says. “We just couldn’t believe it last night when we brought him home.”

The couple escaped the fire wearing only their pyjamas. They’ve lost family photos, heirlooms and hundreds of vinyl records. Stephens assumed her prized possession, a Gibson SJ-200 guitar, was also gone, until a friend found it in one of the charred bedrooms. The case was melted and the body was burnt, but it was in one piece.

eva.wasney@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @evawasney