Expecting a Fried Egg

Besides salvaging a lot of the smoked items, the first months that followed also brought to the surface a strong need to re-buy a lot of the things that were lost in the fire. It is oh so human: they, of course, wanted to surround themselves once more with all the things they had lived with so comfortably.

By now, nine months have passed since the fire. The impact on the young family is huge. Meanwhile, life goes relentlessly. Work goes on, taking care of Mies goes on. At the same time, they have to be on top of the renovation of their house, while also finding themselves in the strange situation where they have to keep on buying things to turn their house into a home again. Exhausting.

Anna and Guido don't need us to remind them of the fact that everything could have been so much worse. They know this, really they do. And the situation does not prevent them from feeling joy, together with Mies. But that does not take away from the fact that losing everything, with the situation completely out of your hands, is nothing less than traumatic. The fact that those things were left standing between those blackened walls for weeks did not make it any easier. You’d wish for everyone to be able to determine when to say goodbye to their belongings.

My husband and I gifted Mies her first Fried Egg. We never dreamed that it would become her favorite plushie. The Fried Egg she's clamping tightly in this picture is not the Egg we gave her. That has been charred. But this feels just as good to her. Apparently, some things are replaceable. If everything goes as it should, Mies will decide for herself the moment she ignores Fried Egg (and ends up giving it a place in her first home out of sheer nostalgia). For now, Fried Egg is perfect. As far as she's concerned, the little brother in her mother's belly should be named after it.