All that was lost in the fires

Victims of last year's blazes are still rebuilding their lives, replacing one cherished item at a time

- SONA MOVSESIAN GUEST CONTRIBUTOR

THE OTHER DAY in an effort to dissociate from the stress of the holidays, I was making brownies for my kids and I went to grab my hand mixer. I bought this cheap, reliable one back when I still was living in my bachelorette pad in Los Feliz about 10 years ago. I realized very quickly that I no longer had that trusty mixer.

It’s the same realization I had when I bought a new pair of loafers and needed a shoehorn. And when I needed a serving tray to bring chips and salsa out to our new patio. And when a recipe for chimichurri sauce called for a mortar and pestle.

I once had all these little items in my life — the things you buy once and use occasionally, but that somehow make your life much easier. I had amassed them over the 20 years I lived with roommates, and then on my own, and then with my husband, and now with my family. But on the night of Jan. 7, 2025, we left our house behind with all these items still in it, along with countless irreplaceable objects, thinking we would return. That next morning, however, like many of our friends and neighbors in Altadena, we lost our home to the Eaton fire. We also lost the mixer and the shoehorn, those serving trays and my mortar and pestle.

So now what? When you have to start from scratch there are so many new questions. When you replace your wardrobe, do you change how you dress? Who is Sona 2.0? Does she splurge on designer clothing? And should I start shopping now for the house we're planning on rebuilding? And speaking of building a house, how exactly do you do that? How does insurance work? Do I have to save every receipt?

It’s exhausting and for the first few weeks I would walk around clothing stores in a daze, completely overwhelmed.