A family’s home is destroyed by fire, yet they feel lucky

Dozens of strangers give food, cash and furniture to help the Guenters rebuild their life

We were all together as a family. That’s the blessing we had. FRANK GUENTER Lost home to fire

Last Friday was payday for Frank Guenter.

A good day for a family living out in the country to drive into town and go grocery shopping.

That’s where Guenter, his wife Maria, and their four young children were when their rented house caught fire.

They returned to the farmhouse just north of Wellesley to find it destroyed.

Firefighters from the township had been there for three hours. They weren’t even sure at first if anyone was inside.

Wellesley Fire Chief Paul Redman said it was engulfed in flames.

If anyone had been inside, they never could have survived.

“Once we started putting water on it, the entire house collapsed,” he said.

Redman said it was “tough” to watch the Guenters stare at the remains of their home, slowly realizing that everything they owned — their passports, their mementos, their children’s toys — was gone.

All they had were the clothes they were wearing and the food they had just purchased.

“It was devastating,” said Frank. “The kids actually started crying.

“I thought, ‘What now?’ ” But now, less than a week later, Frank feels like a very lucky man.

On Tuesday, people he had never met before were loading gifts from strangers into his new home.

Someone at the metal shop where Frank works knew about a house in Crosshill that was available for rent.

Already, beds for everyone had been donated and set up there. There were sofas, a freezer, a washer and dryer, and a sewing machine.

A local restaurant sent meals. Gift cards, clothes, blankets and toys for the kids poured in.

One family from New Hamburg said their own home had burned down several years earlier.

Someone had given them a cherry wood dining table to help them rebuild their home. Now they wanted to give this table to the Guenters.

The organizer of this extraordinary community response is Andrew Foster of New Hamburg.

He had never met the Guenters, but he was moved by their circumstances. “There was a need,” he said.

He put out the call for assistance and co-ordinated the gifts. He responded to hundreds of emails from people who wanted to help.

He also created a GoFundMe page to raise cash for the family. It has raised more than $6,000.

His wife, Rebekah, handled everything else at home while he worked on this project over the long weekend.

The Guenters have family in the area, and the support of their Old Colony Mennonite Church, members of whom are also assisting them.

Frank didn’t have insurance on the contents of the home. He tried to buy it when they moved in, but said it was denied by the company because it was a farmhouse that had a wood stove.

“Words cannot express my feeling of gratitude” to all who have helped his family, he said.

Especially to Foster, who was a stranger to the Guenters a few days ago “but now he’s a wonderful friend,” Frank said.

Standing outside, Frank looked at the snow reflecting the pearly gold light of the late-afternoon sun on the rolling fields around his new home.

The fresh blanket of snow reminded him of the new beginning his family was about to experience.

They may have lost their possessions, but “we’re all together as a family,” he said.

“That’s the blessing we had.”