Reprinted from the Downhome, October 2016
by Ashley Miller
It’s been months since the flames ravaging Fort McMurray engulfed us all. Glued to the shocking media footage pouring from the region, the entire nation prayed for the safety of residents while mourning their untold losses. On the other side of the country, Newfoundlanders and Labradorians watched in particular shock and horror as a mass exodus of cars and trucks, even a woman on horseback, fled the community where so many of our own sons and daughters, friends and family make their homes and raise their children.
We didn’t know it then, but the Fort McMurray wildfire would burn out of control for more than two months, becoming the costliest insured disaster in Canadian history. Approximately 2,400 homes and buildings burned, and entire neighborhoods were flattened as the fire swept through more than half a million hectares. Mercifully, no lives were lost as a direct result of the flames.
While the fire is no longer hogging national headlines as it once did, it’s still burned into the memories of the approximately 90,000 people who lived through the disaster. Among them are Stacey Greeley, Jenelle Burton and Deanne Beck — three young Fort McMurray mothers originally from Newfoundland and Labrador who fled the flames with young children in tow (and one on the way). They recently recalled their emotional returns to the community, the kindness and compassion they’ve witnessed, and how they’re still coming to terms with what happened in their own backyards.
Stacey’s Story
Stacey Greeley, originally of Queen’s Cove, Trinity Bay, returned to a whole new way of life — in more ways than one — when she headed back to Fort McMurray six weeks after fleeing her burning neighborhood. She left 38 weeks pregnant and came back a new mom of baby boy Deegan.
“Once he was here I just wanted to be home, that’s all I could think about, I want to be home, I want to be home,” says Stacey, who gave birth while evacuated in Cold Lake, four hours from Fort McMurray. “It wasn’t what I expected to have to go through bringing our first child into the world.”
Stacey had been enjoying one of her last days on the job before maternity leave when the wildfire leapt the Athabasca River south of her home, prompting evacuation. She’d had a baby shower the previous week, and with only a few preparations left, she was looking forward to relaxing ahead of her first child’s arrival — due May 22.
“I just thought we were going to be gone for a couple of nights and we’d be back, no big deal. So we didn’t grab anything for [the baby], we didn’t grab a car seat, nothing,” she says.
Luckily, the residents of Cold Lake — where they stayed with friends and eventually rented a place of their own — welcomed the couple with open arms, providing them with many of the essentials they’d left behind.
“I don’t know if somebody said that we were coming or what, but we had so much help. My husband packed my bags and he didn’t pack any maternity clothes, so when I opened my suitcase I didn’t have anything that fit me,” says Stacey. “Within two days we were there, I had a full wardrobe again of maternity clothes…clothes for [the baby], we had a bassinet given to us, we had a car seat given to us, a stroller.” Stacey says it was overwhelming to be the recipient of
such compassion from complete strangers.
So shortly after returning to Fort McMurray, where her home received only minor damage, Stacey found a way to pay that kindness forward. She located a couple expecting a baby of their own, who’d lost everything in the fire, through the Facebook page “YMM Helping Others,” and arranged to meet with them and pass on the items that were so generously given to her in her time of need.
“They’d just come back to town, they were living in a camper,” says Stacey. “It was super emotional. She was so grateful, just to have strangers reach out to them.”
Stacey says the whole ordeal has left her feeling more thankful in general, and more aware of what’s truly important to her.
“I’m very appreciative of my family, not that I wasn’t before. but I have a different outlook on life. Things can be taken away from you in a matter of seconds — but at the same time, if we did lose our house it is only material things,” says Stacey. “I know it would be hard to come back and have to rebuild everything, but as long as I did have my family then that’s all that really matters to me.”
And baby Deegan is settling nicely into life in Fort McMurray, blissfully unaware of the tumultuous circumstances surrounding his birth.
“He’s so happy, his expressions are priceless,” says Stacey. “He’s the best.”
Out of the Ashes – PDF – Downhome Article
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Transcribed by Emily Seward, January 2022.
These transcriptions may contain human errors. As always, confirm these as you would any other source material