Myron B. Pitts: After fire, she recovers with a little help from her friends

Dec. 23--The story begins with a Christmas tree.

It is not a story Angela Rye, who is 45, ever imagined or hoped she would be in.

But many people helped her through her ordeal and she believes illustrated the true meaning of Christmas spirit -- and friendship.

Rye had been visiting a cousin and his wife in tiny Ernul, located between Greenville and New Bern. On Thursday, Dec. 13, she had set her alarm for 5:30 a.m., so she could get up and go hunting for deer.

The call she won't ever forget came at 5:02.

She was informed that her home on Monticello Avenue, located on the outskirts of Hope Mills, was on fire.

A family member, another cousin, had called her. The home sat on property that Rye's family has owned since 1976.

"I was in disbelief," Rye says. "I asked him like two or three times. 'Are you kidding me? Are you sure?' "

Her cousin told her someone was right then calling the fire department.

"I immediately started crying," says Rye.

She was soon on the road for the two-and-a-half hour drive home. She was unsteady, sobbing. She called one of her best friends, Stacey Locklear, using her phone's Bluetooth connection.

Locklear says: "She was screaming, she was crying. My house, my house. I said, 'Baby what's wrong?'"

Locklear talked to her all the way home.

She also met Rye at her house, located in the Colonial Heights subdivision.

"I wasn't going to let her face that alone," Locklear says. "That's my best friend. I love her to pieces. I would die for her tomorrow."

The fire was out but the house still smoldered. Little was left beyond a charred frame.

"Just the outer shell," Rye says sadly. "Even some of the aluminum siding is gone. I completely lost everything that I had."

Fire investigators told her the Christmas tree in her front room had started the fire. Rye had decorated her tree with teardrop-shaped, incandescent bulbs that held sentimental value -- they were her family's bulbs growing up.

The tree had another meaning. Rye is on disability and because of health issues she's been dealing with, the live tree was the first she had put up and decorated in five years.

When she left for Ernul she believes she forgot to turn off the tree's lights. Investigators believe the heat from the bulbs burning for more than three days combined with the tree to start the fire.

"I also had presents under the tree," Rye says. "That probably didn't help."

A safe survived the blaze, but there was nothing in it. She was able to save important papers in a filing cabinet that had suffered damaged, but held.

Among them are the home's mortgage papers. Rye was planning to move soon to Missouri and had a buyer for her home ready.

For now she is living in a Holiday Inn Express & Suites in Hope Mills. But as she deals with insurance claims related to her home, she counts up her blessings.

Her three dachshunds -- Savanna, White Sox and Weston -- were staying at Locklear's house, and are still there. In the past, Rye has left them at the house because a neighbor across the street would look after him, but he is not able at present.

So her dogs were safe.

All along the way were friends, families and neighbors who stepped in to help. Hank Harris, deputy chief of the Cotton Fire Department, was one of those who checked on her when she got home. Locklear and another longtime friend Donna Mahon literally held Rye up when she first saw the ruins of her house.

"When I stepped out of my truck, my knees buckled," Rye says.

She says the Red Cross gave her $295. Locklear put her up for a few nights in her family's home.

She encouraged her but said sometimes all she could do was hold her friend while she cried.

Meanwhile she told Rye she would be fine. She would rebuild.

"I told her 'You're one of the strongest women I know.' "

Mahon led a community effort that bought Rye new dog blankets, 40 pounds of dog food and flea and tick medicine. They also brought her food while she was over at Locklear's house, as well as prepaid gift cards.

Another friend, Fayetteville Police Detective Diana Holloway, gave Rye clothes from her own closet.

"I've had an overwhelming response from my friends," Rye says. "If I needed anything, they didn't hesitate."

She says her truck was overdue for an oil change. Reed-Lallier Chevrolet, where she purchased the vehicle, gave her a service, oil change, tire rotation and wash, for free. An employee there, Jake, kept offering her anything she might need in terms of meals.

Rye says she has always tried to help other people, giving them what she could when she was able.

She says the assistance during the loss of her home has reminded her there are plenty of good people willing to give -- at this busy time of year, or any time.

"So much today you hear about are so many bad things. This is just the proof that together we can do anything."

Columnist Myron B. Pitts can be reached at [email protected] or 910-486-3559.

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