Two Saturdays ago we had a bridal shower for De'in who is marrying my cousin Bub this fall. Bub has been in Cali for quite awhile now. De'in lives there as well. Rebekah wore a shirt that said "De'in for a day" and opened all her gifts for the video. We made vintage jewelry for her and then called her on the phone so everyone could have a chance to say hi to her. We had been working on the jewelry for awhile when the smoke alarm started going off. Aunt Cathy said, "Why is the smoke alarm going off?" I was sitting next to Rebekah. She turned to me and said thoughtfully, "I hope my room isn't on fire."

"Why? Do you have candles burning?" I asked. (Both her and I are into that). She didn't answer me, but got up and headed for the stairs. Aunt Cath had already decsended and was on her way back up screaming, "Fire! Rebekah, your room is on fire!" Pandemonium broke out. People started running, dumping chips out of bowls to fill with water, grabing the fire extinguisher, running up and down the stairs, and screaming and yelling. I was one of the first to the basement, hot on my cousin's heels. I entered her room and gaped as I looked in the top of her dresser. It was engulfed in flames! Rebekah pointed the extinguisher at the fire. One small pull was enough to put it out. Immediately smoke billowed up and rolled in waves across her ceiling. I stood amazed at this for a moment and then realized we would need ventilation. I ran to the window and began pushing on it. The others were racing to remove the smoldering embers of what had once been Rebekah's candle display. It took a few minutes for the window to slide. Once I had finished that, I raced upstairs for the video camera. I got the tail end of the excitement forever recorded. The smoke was terrible. It was worse than the fire. It burned my throat and forced me to cough. It was intoxicating.

That was probably the most exciting shower I've ever been to! We all agreed. Thank God for smoke alarms. If it hadn't gone off the whole basement would have been on fire before any of us had realized it!