"Just Garlic"

"It just proves how irrelevant possessions really are.", Guido wrote to us not two hours after the fire started. And, just as the fire was under control, Anna texted: "The first thing we just ordered was a new Fried Egg plushie. When you think about it, Fried Egg really is the most important thing that we possess."

The fire started at the front. Right underneath Mies' bedroom. Anna thought that something smelled burned, as if something was on fire. At this point Guido did not smell anything, but nonetheless Anna decided to go downstairs and knock on the neighbor's door, just to be sure. "No, it's just garlic. I'm cooking.", the downstairs neighbor assured her. This lady was almost 80 years old, and Anna and Guido knew her from our stories. One thing we needn't inform them of, however, was her love for cooking, because that was just something that you could smell on a daily basis. But this? This was not "just garlic."

The moment that Anna returned home, smoke started to emerge from the floors of Mies' bedroom. Without delay, and without belongings, the three ran outside. Two days later, Guido said: "People often wonder what they would grab on their way out if something like a fire were to happen in their house. As it turns out: absolutely nothing.”

They found themselves standing outside, watching the firefighters trying hard to put out the fire. What they could not have realized is that, already at that moment, both strangers and friends were organizing themselves to offer help. Cash, stuff, furniture or housing? How can we help, was the question many people had. People wanted to help, because - as Anna and Guido would hear countless times - "this is about the worst thing that can happen in your life."