All the people remember that the September 2003 brought with it a lot of bad from the Isabel Hurricane. From all place on this Earth we saw how bad it was on the East coast of United State and Canada... That horrible night September 18th to 19th, 2003 took away all the belongings of Larry and one of his little cats, the Angel, a tiger cat, was killed in the fire... Larry hardly was saved. He used to live at the second level and that night with the bad storm Larry felt the smoke. He tried calling the Fire Department, the Police, his personal care aide but the phone connection were down, the electrical power also... Lied in bed (you can imagine that with both MD and SCI Larry couldn't get up from bed by himself) Larry did pray and thought at me... In five minutes after Larry was put of building the ceiling over his bedroom colapsed... The Norwegian forecast cat, Knutsen which was believed being died was found after a while hided in a house will multiple hurts. Larry couldn't keep it anymore in the motel where he lives now and he found a new home for Knutsen...

Here is a little part of or conversation by Yahoo Messenger dated September 18th, in USA and September 19th, in Romania:

"[...]Larry (00:09:36): ...the bad part of this storm will be over next 30 hours weather service is saying
Maria (00:10:13): it passes slow then by Fredericksburg
Larry (00:10:15): look if phone and power go down
Larry (00:10:36): it could be long time to restore, days to maybe even a week, so don't worry, ok?
Maria (00:10:48): God, a week...
Maria (00:11:42): how could I stay with no news from you
Larry (00:11:47): you are listed as fiancée in my pocket papers
Maria (00:12:45): don't say me this!
Larry (00:12:52): police would contact you if anything really bad happened, say I was in hospital or something like that
Maria (00:13:15): I don't want this message
Larry (00:13:25): I will be fine, Maria, trust in God
Larry (00:14:16): hey I have a life time appointment with my woman
Maria (00:14:19): ok, you promised! [...]"

So, I went at the office on September 19th and I did start feeling strange at around 1pm Romania's time, 6am the East of USA time... I checked my email and I saw that Larry did not send me a message till 4pm. Then I went home feeling that something bad happened with Larry, not only that he would not have electrical power or internet connection and then he couldn't write me an email as usually.

When I arrived home I opened my PC and I did try to read news about the Isabel Hurricane, how the Fredericksburg was hit by it... Stupefied, I did read that a big fire started in the night in a building on Prince Edward Street, the Larry's street.

Scared, I couldn't read the exactly address which was written in that news... I saw even the photo of the building in fire... I didn't see it in a photo before but Larry described it to me... Even it seems being right what Larry described to me I refused believing that it was exactly Larry's home... I started trembling and reading but seeing almost nothing than 'fire... fire... fire...'... I did pray that Larry be fine, saved, if the fire was in his building... I found a phone number in a newspaper's website and I did call there asking which number has that building which was destroyed. A lady told me it was 200, so not 1200 where Larry lived... Don't think I did calm down, my feelings were still strange and I did continue reading that news... after say 3 or 4 hours I saw listened in it a name of one of Larry's neighbors... I still tried to pray that this lady maybe did move from the building of Larry... I started look for the Fire Dept. phone number in Fredericksburg... no one answered to me.

Then between the tears I saw the number of the street... 1200... Larry's building... I did freeze... 'So, It was Larry's building... Please, God, do that Larry being saved, please, do this for him, for me! Please, God! Please!'. These were the words in my mind... Almost 3 days till I heard news from Larry I was like a machine.. doing things, but I didn't know why I do them, for what I do them... Many phone lines were went down, I knew it. I did call the Emergency Room... All I heard there was that the fire was indeed awful, that all the 22nd tenants lost their homes and goods. They also told me that not injuries were reported there. Then I did call to the Police. Someone there asked me 'For what was Mr. Evensen arrested?". I replied that he wasn't arrested but I am from Romania, I am his fiancée and I want to know if he is well that he lives in the building which was in fire in early September 19th... The the reply was dry one... 'We know nothing. Call the Emergency Rooms.' Also, I did find on that site the phone number of the Larry's doctor and I call there. The secretary told me that the doctor didn't visit Mr. Evensen today because the weather is very bad and the doctor visited his patients before of the bad weather. After that I did call the restaurants on the Prince Edward Street. Part of them had not the phone line working, part of them had the phone line affected by the hurricane... I did find a nice girl who promised me that she will try to hear something about Larry and then she will tell me what she did found. This girl told me that she knows that the fire started during of the night and the storm made worse the fire... it took almost 16 to 18 hours the fight with the fire...

Then I saw on a website a short movie about the fire... you can imagine how did I feel that time...

I will tell you that Larry stayed in a shelter for 3  days... their personal aide who lived in same house did move in Richmond where they work but they still come in Fredericksburg helping Larry till he found a new personal aide. Larry lost his power chair, the Everest and Jennings   Lancer 2000 Labac, all the adaptive devices, the braces, the furniture, the business tools, the Angel, also the fire has broken him financially. Since the fire Larry lives in a motel, he didn't find a  new apartment for rent. This is because Larry is scared for the moment living at the high level, he is looking for the ground level. Also he has not furniture, sheets and all the stuff you need for living in a house. Few people donated to Larry some clothes and food. A lady gave him an old single bed... To tell you the truth, having both CCMMD and SCI, Larry needs an electrical bed, the people who are quadriplegic they knows what I tell this...

You will ask if Larry had an insurance... unfortunately he had not it... When Larry was took out, the people bumped him of the baluster... Larry lost 16 teeth... it was all he did need that time...

Some of the couple who lived in 1200 Prince Edward Street broke after a while, they couldn't cope with all the losing... It was not our case!

Before the fire Larry had all a person needs having a decent life, so he wasn't a rich man, he struggled to have what he had before of the fire. But I do appreciate  him for what he is as soul and  heart, for his culture, for his thinking, not for his fortune (for Romania he looked as a rich man... please, don't smile, it is the truth!).

If you ask me what the fire did with us, I will answer you that it make stronger our love but it made also hard our work in order to be together as a real family. It damaged not only Larry, it damaged me also. The worst losing is the lost time that we can't be together because right now.

Surely, we didn't give up! And we will not give up! We fight for being together... this site is the prove that we do all for it!

 visitors since January 26, 2004