Paradise reaches out to fire victim
<p>Ruth Winkler talks about her quilt that she saved from the fire that destroyed her house last week.</p>
“It wasn’t an old quilt that I grabbed, it was actually brand-new,” Ruth Winkler said. “The quilt is a collection of photos from all the plays I’ve done over the 20 years I’ve been doing them, and it means a lot to me. The girls who transposed the photos onto the quilt worked so hard on it and if there was one thing I thought to save from that fire – it was that quilt.”
Just last week, Ruth Winkler of Plains lost her house in a structure fire. The house, which had been an original post of the CCC during the Great Depression, caught fire on Thursday, March 8 possibly due to a space heater. Authorities deemed the house a total loss.
“Everything is such a shock,” Winkler said. “I’m making lists for the insurance company, we’re living out of a trailer across the way from where our house was, and I’m also running the play. It’s hard to continue but it’s my life. And working with the kids helps take my mind off things because I love working with them so much.”
Winkler is helping direct and organize the upcoming performance of “Cinderella” with the Plains-Paradise Players. Winkler had been sewing all the costumes at her house before the fire destroyed it. All the costumes were lost in the fire.
“People have volunteered to make more costumes,” Winkler said. “At first, I wasn’t sure if we were going to have to cancel the play, but the [Paradise] school said, ‘No, you can’t cancel the play – the kids are so excited!’”
Therefore, Winkler agreed to continue on with the play as well as play rehearsals.
“We have to keep it simple now, with the costumes and all,” Winkler said. “And we’re also cutting back to just two nights of performance instead of four. The kids were worried and were like, ‘Ohhh, are we not going to do the play?’ And I said, ‘No, we’ll do the play!’”
The play is scheduled for April 13-14 at Paradise School. Aside from preparing for the play, Winkler said the last week has revealed both good aspects along with the frustrating ones.
“The community has been wonderful to us,” Winkler said. “I really appreciate everything they’ve done. People are helping us out, asking us ‘what can we do to help?’ and we are just so, so grateful.”
Though the fire was covered through insurance, a lot of memories were lost, as well as collections of valuables.
“We lost home movies, photo albums, and things like that, but we have so much to be thankful for,” Winkler said. “I’m thankful the fire happened during the day and not at night. I’m thankful it was just me and my dog at home, none of my kids. We have just one son here and the other eight are scattered, but anyway – I’m thankful for a lot of things. Good people, good friends. You just go on with life.”