Weed, Cal. — “It’s too heartbreaking, like coming to the scene of the crime.”
Roy Williams doesn’t like to visit Oak Street in Weed, California. The memories of last year’s Boles fire is still too raw. New construction sits on top of the lot he and his now wife Jaclynn called home before the fire.
“You’re thinking it’s not going to be me. It’s not going to hit my house. It’s too far away,” Williams explains while standing on his old lot. “You panic. You are like what are you going to do.”
September 15, 2015 marks one year ago when Williams watched flames swept down the hill and headed straight to the neighborhood he was renting in.
“Everything can be taken from you in a blink of an eye,” he explains.
Just a few days before their wedding, Williams only had time to grab his fiance’s wedding dress and their rings. He was determined to make their a wedding day a special one. Standing in dirt where he used to lay his head, Williams smiles as he flips through photos of his wedding day.
“It was just a great day she loved it. She is my best friend.”
His number one memory is not the fire that nearly ruined their special day.
“Family, they are there. Thick or thin they are there,” Williams says. “That’s what keeps you going.”
He’ll be celebrating his one year anniversary in a week and says he wont be thinking about what he lost. Instead he’s focusing on what he gained days after the flames.
“Life goes on people rebuild and that’s what you’ve got to do instead of just sit there and dwell in the past.”
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