I designated my property "Pacific Woods" here in Highland Estates decades ago in honor of its tranquil, private setting (pacific means peaceful). Though it is neither private nor treed anymore, I decided to keep the name.

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In the same way that making an inventory list of our personal property was emotionally taxing - forcing me to remember as much as I could of what we lost - working on this website has been a daunting task as well. To tell our tale - at least from my (Julie) point of view - I had to bring back to mind all the anxiety, fears, and stress of our evacuation and the following years of recovery; additionally, recalling what we physically endured in the aftermath of the wildfire. I hope I've been able to make sense of our multi-faceted story in these pages - perhaps it can serve as a cautionary tale.

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As emotionally difficult as building these pages has been, I have always documented my life (sadly, most of that work has gone up in the flames, too). Although I don't want to relive what happened to us and the years following, I also don't want us to forget. To paraphrase a quote from a movie, "History is an explanation of the present." This wildfire has changed our lives forever - it's important to me that we remember how it happened.