The Clean Up

You may have seen in my posts of the past few days that The Amish Cook's family experienced a bad fire.  Lots of smoke and water damage and one room was charred and scorched, but no injuries and their house is salvageable. So all in all, it could have been much, much worse.  This is a photo of the clean-up upstairs, tons of fluffy insulation came down from the attic like grey snow. But what does happen when an Amish family experiences an unfortunate event like a house fire?  I am going to speak in generalities here because each case and community is different.  But as a general rule, in the aftermath of a fire, flood, or health emergency, this is when the Amish are at their best.  Even people who have left the Amish and have little good to say about the church often admit that when it comes to taking care of one another, they do a very good job.  Casseroles and baked goods begin to show up.  Church members arrive  to help with food, clothing and the hard labor that it takes to get things back in order fast.  Many Amish eschew traditional insurance, but they do pay into a church-run fund called "Amish Aid."  Amish Aid does help cover rebuilding expenses and can be used to pay for medical emergencies. In the Eicher's case parts of their home will need to be basically rebuilt and almost anything that can hold a scent will have to be washed and hung out to dry. But they'll have plenty of help. Smaller settlements may not have as formal of a fund, but even in those cases the Amish take the attitude that if something bad happens to one of us, it happens to all of us.  And I find that to be a very endearing trait.