Grandma's house is no more

By Shayla Papik –

Hearing sirens, Josephine Papik woke up Tuesday morning and saw fire on top of the mountains. She took solace in the fact that she lived two lots from the fire station.

“When I saw the fire, I was shocked. I couldn't believe it,” Josie says. “I just thought I'll be ok, it will never hit my house. Then I decided to start packing and putting things in my car.”

She picked up pictures, important papers and keepsakes. In every room in the Pacific Palisades house, there was another item full of memories. She remembered her kitties: Itty-bitty, Trixy, Maya and Smooch. She had to bring them.

All the while, Josie was talking on the phone. The fire wouldn’t reach her house, everybody assured her.

The two younger cats suffer from anxiety; they wouldn’t let Josie catch them to pack them in the car.

“It broke my heart that I had to leave them,” Josie says. “I didn't want to leave them, I didn't want them to die. It was like leaving my children. I have no words to describe it.”

Josie never saw Maya and Smooch again.

News came out in bits and pieces the next day, rumors mixed with facts, through shared videos and pictures, uncertainty and anxiety governed. A neighbor’s house was confirmed gone. She clasped at hope but was descending into the depressed resignation that her house would be gone too.

“I just cried, I couldn't believe it, I couldn't believe my house was on fire. The whole town was burning up,” Josie says. “It just didn’t seem possible. I don't remember the exact moment finding out how my house was burned. We kinda just knew.”

On Jan. 8, she found out. Incinerated was her home of 40 years. Her three children and 33 grandkids are fine. She took refuge with her son, Jimmy, who is also my dad, in Culver City.

On Jan. 9, Josie hiked up to her home, a 4-hour jaunt starting from Ocean Avenue at the Santa Monica Pier. Her mind was “tormented” while she walked with her son and daughter, their spouses, and one grandson. Her goal: to find forgotten items, her husband’s ashes, important papers, her wedding dress.

She held out the impossible hope of finding her beloved kitties.

She didn’t find anything. Immense sadness and desolation immersed Josie, her kids and grandson. They experienced endless emotions with tears and sorrow, standing over the ashes of the house all these people had shared cherished memories in, with family reunions, too many sleepovers, and spirit filled holidays spent.

Grandma’s house was no more.

About this reporter: Shayla Papik studies journalism at the Lighthouse Christian Academy in Santa Monica.