Fire And Loss: A Business And Personal Lesson For You!
Hello All,
I can’t believe it is already the second week in May. The year is flying by on me. I was going to continue on with writing my training summaries however over the last 2 weeks I have had a life changing experience that I feel I should share with you.
Last week I had some of my family down from interstate to go to a family reunion. It was a great experience over all. My little one got to meet cousins she had never met and I got to re meet up with cousins that I had only met as a little one.
The only bad side of the reunion was that we did have a tragedy occur. We were staying in a beautiful wood cabin resort in the mountains with a gorgeous bush setting. There were Kangaroos roaming the park and you could hear the Kookaburras and Cockatoos.
We arrived on Friday evening and decided to catch up with other family for dinner. We were only gone from our cabins for about 2 and half hours. Well during this time my auntie had turned on her electric blanket to warm up her bed while we were away. Not such a great idea in hindsight.
After dinner finished my father, brother, myself and my little one drove back to our cabin. We were comfortably settled inside, I was changing my little one into her Pj’s when we heard screaming, explosions and my auntie banging on the door telling us her cabin was burning down.
My auntie had walked to the restaurant and as she was walking back she could see flames coming from the side of her cabin. My uncle only just managed to move their car out of the way in a matter of minutes. It would have exploded and they would have lost that too.
My aunties cabin was about 100 metres from ours down the hill. In between there were about 6 other cabins in a semi circle shape.
Everyone went in to panic and adrenalin mode. My father and brother ran to try and help. I had to stay with my little one and ended up looking after my cousins little ones as well while they tried to help with the fire.
I had four very scared little frightened girls that I had to comfort and tell them everything would be ok even though I know deep down in my heart and mind I was just as frightened as them.
It was eerie and frightening to watch. Here we were in the mountains surrounded by bushland. We didn’t know how long the fire fighters would take and the nearest main town was half an hour away. It was very late at night and we had no evacuation plan.
Luckily for all of us the fire fighters arrived within about 20 minutes of being called and managed to contain the fire from spreading to any other cabins. The other plus was that we had had wet weather all day so everything was quite moist, cold and damp.
No one was injured everyone was safe. However my auntie did loose everything that she had brought with her apart from the clothes on their backs. It wasn’t until the next morning did we release the magnitude of what had happened to us and what we had experienced. It really put what had happened on Black Saturday last year into some sort of perspective for me.
For those internationals reading, Black Saturday occurred on the 7th of February 2009 in the Victorian mountains. We had a massive bush fire, the biggest in our history and we lost nearly 200 hundred lives.
The other thing we discovered that my auntie had lost was most of the memorabilia from my grand parents history. She had brought up photo albums and documents etc to show at the reunion scheduled for Saturday. The sad thing here is that my grand father is dead and my grand mother has Alzheimer’s and has no idea who we are half the time.
None of our memorabilia was backed up, in other words we have no other copies of the photos, documents etc etc, they were all originals.
Now getting to the point of why I am telling you my recent experience. Firstly I do believe we should be very grateful for what we do have and the people we have around us and this whole fire experience has taught me to be very humble and appreciative for my life and for my daughter.
Secondly with today’s technology, if photos and memorabilia is important to you, then make sure you have copies, scan them into your computer, keep them on a second hard drive that can be kept at someone’s house. Have a back up.
Back up and copy what is important to you or what could be important to your children and your potential grand children. Due to the fire we now do not have many pictures of my grand parents history so the only way I can teach my little one about her grand parents is to tell her stories and get her to imagine the images.
Back up everything that is important to you, not only personal but business too. Don’t wait until you have lost everything and say “Oh I should have made copies..”
Take some time out of your schedule, think about what memorabilia would be important to you if you were to loose everything and make copies. Just think about it. It is not just us that loose this history, it is our children and our children’s children too.
On that note I must away, I have some backing up to do….
So until next time……..
Cuddle Your Little Ones!
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Twitter: terrycontiblog
on May 13th, 2010 at 2:30 pm
Hi Jacinta, Sorry the know what happened, glad to know everyone is OK and no one got hurt. That’s the main thing. Life is fragile and precious, you can’t back that up so we should all cherish each day.
Second- Yes it is very wise and intelligent to back up important things before something unexpected happens. Life is not perfect.
Terry Conti
.-= Terry Conti´s last blog ..Stress =-.
Jacinta
Reply:
May 13th, 2010 at 2:55 pm
Hi Terry,
Thank you for popping by!
I completely agree, Life is very precious and we are very grateful it was only stuff that got destroyed.
It has definitely put my life into a little perspective at the moment.
Hope everything is going well. see you on your blog soon!
Cheers
Jacinta
Hi Jacinta,
I`m really sorry to hear about this event, you know the frightening thing is it just goes to show you never know when tragedy is going to strike?
The “OH NO” moment for me came when you stated your grandmother lost all the past personal photos, such a shame them kind of personal effects are like christs shroud to the vatican!
Thanks for sharing some personal event, it brings us all back to reality!
Take care Aussie rose, real glad you and the little one are safe and well….Ed.
.-= Ed´s last blog ..Selling on eBay- Using the $50 a Day Auction Challenge By Steve Poke? =-.
Jacinta
Reply:
May 13th, 2010 at 10:14 pm
Hi Ed,
Thank you for popping by!
Yes the fire was an interesting experience and not one that I would like to experience again, and yes the loss of the memorabilia is a hard one, especially when my grandmother has Alzheimer’s now.
The only thing we can do to try and replace some of the photos is ask around all the older cousins and see if other people have photos that we can take copies of.
I just thought I should put a picture of it up in my post. My brother managed to get a picture on his phone.
Thank you for the kind wishes. See you on your blog soon!
Jacinta
Hi Jacinta
Sorry to hear about the fire. It must of been really scary for you especially with little ones to look after and I’m so glad that no one was hurt.
Its a shame all those memories were lost but you’ve always got them inside you and they will never go away.
Thanks for visiting my blog and good luck with the coaching program I’ll keep coming back to read how you’re getting on.
Warm Regards
Dawn Kay
Jacinta
Reply:
May 13th, 2010 at 11:47 pm
Hi Dawn,
Thank you for popping by!
And thank you for the kind words, it was a scary experience, and definitely a learning one.
I know that I will always have memories inside of my grand parents, it is just such a shame we lost the memorabilia from their past when they were young.
We are hoping to collect some photos from relatives to re-collate some of the memorabilia back up again.
The coaching program has been awesome. I have just about finished writing up my summaries. I actually finished the program last year although I still have a few more tasks to do.
One day, One Task at a time!
See you on your blog soon!
Cheers
Jacinta
Glad no one was hurt! I’ll bet the story gets brought up at family reunions in the years to come.
It’s a shame you lost that memorabilia, but when stuff like that happens it’s a blessing in disguise. Sometimes life needs to punish you a little to make you see how important things are.
.-= Jillian´s last blog ..Making Money With Mechanical Turk =-.
Jacinta
Reply:
May 14th, 2010 at 10:03 am
Hi Jillian,
Thank you for popping by!
It is a shame we lost my grandparents memorabilia especially since my grand mother has Alzheimer’s.
I do agree with you in life’s lessons for a reason. I am going to make sure I have back ups of everything relevant for my daughters future when she wants to know our history.
See you on your blog soon!
Cheers
Jacinta
Twitter: sallyneill
on May 14th, 2010 at 8:25 am
Hey Jacinta, thank god your and your family are ok, good luck with your coaching, success is just around the corner, Sally
.-= Sally Neill´s last blog ..In It To Win It And Need YOUR Help =-.
Jacinta
Reply:
May 14th, 2010 at 10:04 am
Hi Sally,
Thank you for popping by!
And thank you for the kind words.
Good luck with the competition, I am sure you are going to do very well.
See you on your blog soon!
cheers
Jacinta
Twitter: gwenatanner
on May 14th, 2010 at 9:06 am
Hi Jacinta,
I’m so sorry to hear about your experience! But from your experience we are all gaining some good advice as well! Thank you for sharing your story.
I really hope to see you in the next 30 day challenge, it starts June 1! I know we’d get some really good posts out you! LOL
Take care,
Gwen
.-= Gwen Tanner´s last blog ..Organizing Your Content Graphically =-.
Jacinta
Reply:
May 14th, 2010 at 10:06 am
Hi Gwen,
Thank you for popping by!
I wasn’t going to write about the fire as it is a personal experience, however my instinct told me to share so people to learn about backing up our memorabilia such as photos etc. Especially if there is no other copies.
So what is the challenge? Is it just blogging?
Cheers
Jacinta
Twitter: gwenatanner
on May 14th, 2010 at 10:10 am
Hi Jacinta,
Yes, I responded to your comment on my blog earlier about the blog challenge (I will copy it here LOL):
Hi Jacinta,
PLEEEEEASE join us on Jeanette’s 30-Day Blogging Challenge. It starts June 1. Search for #blog30 on Twitter and here’s the link for more information.
http://jeanettecates.com/what-makes-a-great-blog-challenge/
It would be so much fun to blog with you!
Thanks for visiting,
Gwen
.-= Gwen Tanner´s last blog ..Organizing Your Content Graphically =-.
Jacinta
Reply:
May 14th, 2010 at 10:14 am
Hi Gwen,
I just turned the computer on 5 mins ago so hadn’t had the chance to get back over to your site.
I am still in wake up mode!
Thank you for the link, I will check it out and see if I can join along. It sounds like a fun challenge.
See you soon!
Cheers
Jacinta
Twitter: michaelpedzotti
on May 15th, 2010 at 12:17 am
Hi Jacinta, what a great escape from one tragedy only to realise another just happened – the loss of irreplaceable items.
You mention it only briefly but website information needs to be backed up very regularly, especially if you’re making any sort of money out of it. I am still researching ways of doing this, apart from the manual backup from cPanel. I will share it in a post sometime soon as I have found a few useful tools.
Jacinta
Reply:
May 15th, 2010 at 1:13 pm
Hi Michael,
Thank you for popping by!
I agree with backing up basically everything where we can. At the moment I am using a plugin that can back up my blog website called “Wp Backup”. However I would definitely be interested to know more about other back up processes.
I look forward to reading your post about it.
See you on your blog soon!
Jacinta
Hi Jacinta, figured I’d stop over and check out your site also.
Great looking! I know how hard it must be to take care of your child and make this all come together. I actually care for our 3 year old from 8AM-1 or 2 in the afternoon.
It can be done. Keep plugging and chugging and glad everyone made it out of the cabin safely.
Brandon
.-= BrandonBurgh´s last blog ..Which Graphic to Use? I Need Your Help. =-.
Jacinta
Reply:
May 17th, 2010 at 1:19 pm
Hi Brandon,
Thank you for popping by!
Boy can I relate to the care of the toddler and trying to create a business online. It is good to see more of us on here doing it together
I completely agree on keep chugging along. I like that saying. I have a motto of “The tortoise always wins the race” I remind myself everyday one task and one day at a time. As long as I do at least 10 minutes a day things will slowly get there.
See you on your blog soon!
Cheers
Jacinta
Hi Jacinta
Tortoise is a good image… goes rather well with the Hedgehog concept of being focussed on one way at a time., doesn’t it? They’re about the same speed.
I feel for you. Losing momentoes is a heartbreak.
The back-up discussion that has merged is certainly one close to my mind. I lost my blog early on, and its back up didn’t save me – couldn’t be accessed. So now I do it differently. And yes, that could have been worse too, like your fire experience. But better that it hadn’t happened at all ! Such is life.
You have a great blog already. Keep it up.
And be Uncommon!
Anthony
Jacinta
Reply:
May 18th, 2010 at 3:48 pm
Hi Anthony,
Thank you for stopping by!
Tortoise and Hedgehog. I like those concepts. I have a tortoise on my desk to remind me to be slow and steady with what I am doing.
Sorry to hear about loosing your blog. I have a plugin called “wp-backup” that does a back up of my blog and sends me a back up to email, although I have been thinking I may need to organise another back up just in case of the unknown.
Hope all is going well. See you on your blog soon!
Cheers
Jacinta
Twitter: barry_wells
on May 19th, 2010 at 12:49 am
Hi Jacinta, I’m really sorry to hear that your family get together ended the way it did. I feel sorry for you all but especially the poor children. I hope that they don’t have any lasting scars.
Respect to fire fighters everywhere, especially for getting to you all in 20 minutes, i dread to think what could have happened if they were slower than they were.
Good luck on getting copies of your family photos, i hope that you’re successful in finding other family members with copies. Once you have (fingers crossed) it’ll be worth a weekend get together to scan them all and reminisce on better times.
Very best of luck to you my friend,
Respect and Regards, Barry
PS: Do you know one of the best things about the Masterclass in my book? Linking up with people like yourself Jacinta. Thank you for all the help you’ve given me.
.-= Barry Wells´s last blog ..Start Making Money On eBay With The eBay Want It Now Listings =-.
Jacinta
Reply:
May 19th, 2010 at 8:12 am
Hi Barry,
Thank you for popping by!
The fire was a very interesting experience. I don’t think the littlest girls will be affected as much they are both 3, however the 2 older ones (6 & 8 ) were quite distraught.
My cousin said they have been having a few nightmares since. They were the ones I had to calm down the most. The 3 year old’s just played while it was all happening.
Yes I agree on the fire fighters. We were very lucky they came very quickly and contained the blaze very fast and no one was injured.
I am looking forward to collating the photos, the weekend has spurred my interest in doing some family research for my little one, so one day I can give her a book on her history.
No worries on the help. I agree, Masterclass has been awesome. I am really loving what I am doing.
See you on your blog soon!
Cheers
Jacinta
Hi Jacinta,
Sorry to hear about your bad weekend, that really sucks. You seem to be doing really well by staying so positive, and I’m sure your strength will be admired by your readers, it definitely struck me anyway.
You’re an inspiration.
Love & Peace
Tony
.-= Anthony Murphy´s last blog ..I Never Wanted A Mentor =-.
Jacinta
Reply:
May 19th, 2010 at 8:30 pm
Hi Anthony,
Thank you for popping by!
And thank you for the kind words!
It wasn’t one of the best experiences I have ever had, that is for sure! However the only thing I can do is learn the little lessons from the experience and go from there.
Hope all is well for you! See you on your blog soon!
Cheers
Jacinta
Barry Wells
Twitter: barry_wells
Reply:
May 19th, 2010 at 8:58 pm
Here here, i totaly agree Anthony.
Jacinta you are an insperation and we wish you all the very best.
Respect and Regards, Barry
.-= Barry Wells´s last blog ..Start Making Money On eBay With The eBay Want It Now Listings =-.
Jacinta
Reply:
May 19th, 2010 at 9:03 pm
Oh shucks Mr Barry,
Your making me blush!
Just being me….
Jacinta
p.S Did you get the replies sorted??
Barry Wells
Twitter: barry_wells
Reply:
May 19th, 2010 at 9:44 pm
Hi Jacinta, I think i’ve got them working correctly, thank you for the help with that.
All i need now is some comments ha ha.
Take care, back soon.
Barry
.-= Barry Wells´s last blog ..Start Making Money On eBay With The eBay Want It Now Listings =-.
Jacinta
Reply:
May 19th, 2010 at 10:58 pm
Hi Barry,
No worries on the help! Now we have to get everyone to understand the power of commenting!!
See you on your blog soon to give you some comments!
Cheers
Jacinta
Hi Jacinta,
That is just terrible! I’m very sorry to hear about what happened to you and your family. But as you said, luckily nobody was hurt.
In these situations there’s really not much you can do. And most of the time we are helpless against a raging fire.
I always copy my photos on a separate DVD and also keep a copy on the hard disk.
BTW, thanks for visiting my blog and for being nice enough to write a comment
I wish you all the best and hopefully no one will ever have to go through what you and your family went.
Stay safe,
Remi
.-= Remi´s last blog ..How To Legally Force Others To Build Your Opt-In List On Autopilot? =-.
Jacinta
Reply:
May 20th, 2010 at 10:25 am
Hi Remi,
Thank you for popping by!
No worries on visiting your blog, you have some awesome content on there!
Yes on the backing up to DVD etc and having multiple copies. I am about to buy another hard drive to back everything onto again so that I can leave it at another house. You can never be too cautious!
See you on your blog soon!
Cheers
Jacinta
Hi Jacinta,
Very touching story and thanks for sharing!
I hope your aunt and everyone else is ok. It is sad to know that all of those precious memorabilia is lost forever. You make a good point though in ensuring that everyone backs up and makes copies of their things as you definitely want to pass it on to generations to come.
Stay strong and continued success to you!
Anna
Jacinta
Reply:
May 20th, 2010 at 10:29 am
Hi Anna,
Thank you for popping by!
I think the loss of the memorabilia is a little sad, however I am determined to help get a new collection from other family members. I know that we still have memories etc, however it is not being able to show my daughter many photos of when my grandparents were young that got to me.
With today’s technology, we should be able to make copies of nearly all documents and photos. I have a big task ahead of me!
Good luck with your coaching. See you on your blog soon!
Jacinta
Hi Jacinta
Thanks for popping over to my blog. Your blog is looking realy good. It looks like there are quite a few similarities between what your’e doing with John Thornhill and what we are doing with Alex jeffreys. It is nice to know there is some one else down here pursuing a similar quest. We have another internet based canvas printing business and it was while we were trying to get it to the point that it could be a full time job for both of us that we found Alex Jeffreys. My wife Melanie did MWA 2 and within 6 months we were both able to quit our day jobs.
Great to find some one else that is active in this region. If ever you are near Metung make sure we catch up.
Cheers
Dave
.-= Dave Jeffreys´s last blog ..Google Keywords – A Useful Free Tool =-.
Jacinta
Reply:
May 20th, 2010 at 9:27 pm
Hi Dave,
Thank you for popping by!
I do think there are some similarities between John and Alex. The course I have been doing taught us more about blog creation and product creation, where I think Alex’s course teaches you more of traffic driving and really focuses on lead generation and list building.
I haven’t done Alex’s course, but I have been following some of last years students and learning from them from their blogs.
It is great about some more Aussies learning this stuff. I know of a good dozen now, all over the country. There are 7 I know of here in Vic. Maybe I should organise a meet up in a few months time.
It would probably be great for networking and brain storming to communicate with like minded people.
Great to hear you have been able to quit your jobs, that’s awesome!
Enjoy the learning! See you on your blog soon!
Cheers
Jacinta
Twitter: johnmcnally54
on May 20th, 2010 at 8:30 pm
Bad luck with your fire experience Jacinta, at least nobody was hurt.
I purchased a separate hard drive for back-up, after reading your previous posts when you lost data.However I didn’t use it much.
I have just purchased “Acronis” software which makes everything easy. It makes a mirror image of your whole computer; – files, programmes, operating system….everything. If your computer crashes, you just plug in the back-up hard drive to a new computer, and everything is the same as before.
You can try the system out for 30 days, free of charge.
John
.-= John McNally´s last blog ..GOD’s Signature =-.
Jacinta
Reply:
May 20th, 2010 at 8:59 pm
Hi John,
I have heard about that software. It is what I want to set up as well. Just need to buy the extra hard drive!
Need to get some sales happening. Has been very quiet the last 2 weeks. I have started listing on ebay again in the last week.
The ‘Acronis’ software and hard drive sounds perfect. Tis on my list!
Hope all is going well. See you on your blog soon!
Cheers
Jacinta
Twitter: vancesova
on May 21st, 2010 at 2:29 pm
Hi Jacinta,
The main thing is that everybody is OK. The material things can be hard to lose but aside from the photos can be replaced.
I’m sorry that it happened to you but I’m also thankful that it ended up the way it did.
Thank you for sharing the story and the reminder about backing things up.
Vance
.-= Vance@Email List Building ´s last blog ..Email List Building Ebook, How To Build Email List In Any Market =-.
Jacinta
Reply:
May 21st, 2010 at 3:39 pm
Hi Vance,
Thank you for popping by!
I am very thankful it was only material possessions we lost and no one was hurt. The memorabilia loss was the hurtful part, however I am sure we should be able to get some of it back over time from other relatives photo albums.
It was definitely a reminder to back up what is precious to us that was what made me decide to write the post and share the experience.
Your new blog post has an interesting title! I will have to pop over and have a read. See you on your blog soon!
Cheers
Jacinta
Twitter: kathydobson
on May 22nd, 2010 at 4:02 am
Wow Jacinta that was quite a story! I am so glad that no one was hurt…but the emotions suffered for sure.
It is a true lesson for all of us. How quickly our visual past can disappear if we have not prepared for it.
And in this day and age, there is no reason not to have these things backed up.
Thanks Jacinta for the important reminder
Kathy
.-= Kathy Dobson´s last blog ..Crave Adventure? Tropical MBA Semester II is Your Answer =-.
Jacinta
Reply:
May 23rd, 2010 at 1:18 pm
Hi Kathy,
Thank you for popping past!
It was a bit of a shock to realise the memorabilia lost. The clothes etc can be replaced but the old photos and documents are gone.
I am on a bit of a mission now to try and back up a lot of my memorabilia for bubba. I know she probably won’t worry about looking at it all for many years to come, however I do know that if she does have children one day that she will want to have the history for her own child. That was what hit home for me from the whole experience.
I am glad I have shared this experience to remind people that sometimes it is not all about business.
See you on your blog soon!
Cheers
Jacinta
Twitter: roonie_g
on May 24th, 2010 at 3:39 am
Oh My Goodness, Jacinta, how scary!! And the little ones!! Bet they were just as terrified! So glad you are OK. Too bad that the memorabilia was lost in the fire, but Thank God y’all are OK!!
I have an external hard drive, just don’t know how to use it!! Also got the wp backup plugin…don’t know how to use that either! Maybe someone can send me in the right direction??
I see you call your baby Bubba, too!! I have a Bubba…..he’s almost 12, also have a Bitsy (don’t tell her I said that)
Talk to ya soon!!
Lisa`
Jacinta
Reply:
May 24th, 2010 at 6:17 am
Hi Lisa,
Thank you for popping by!
I think I was just as frightened as the little ones, I just couldn’t show them that. We were very lucky everyone was ok and it was only stuff and memorabilia that was lost.
Re your hard drive, contact Dan from D9, he uses a software program that helps with backing up your computer called ‘Acronis’ I think. I have heard it is good and only around $50.
Re your wordpress back up plugin in, set it up so that you receive the emails with the back up once every 2 days. I think the plugin backs up our posts, and comments.
I want to find out if I can just do a straight back up from cpanel as well. EG have a folder where I copy my files back over to my computer once a month. I am starting to think that is an idea as well to help with backup situations.
I do call my daughter bubba, she now calls herself bubba as well, it is quite funny.
Hope all is going well. See you on your blog soon!
Cheers
Jacinta
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