Freshman Sierra Skidmore enters the pitching circle and inhales the fumes of dirt and freshly cut grass to calm her nerves. She glances into the stands before she steps on the mound, only to find one thing misplaced, her mom.
Skidmore’s mom never misses one of her games or showings and looking up to find her absent caught her off guard. Little did she know, a much bigger problem was going on behind the scenes. When her mom finally returned to Legacy, she delivered Skidmore the news.
“I didn’t know how to tell you but Athena, our cat, died,” Ms. Skidmore said to her confused daughter. “Our house caught on fire.”
For awhile, it didn’t hit Skidmore that she would never see her house in its original state ever again. After reality set in, she jumped in her truck and headed for what remained of her home.
“We live in Rendon so it took us a little while to get home,” Skidmore said. “When we got to the house, we couldn’t pull in the driveway so we parked a few houses down.”
As soon as they came to a stop, Skidmore jumped out of the truck and ran as fast as she could to see all of the damage for herself.
“I just looked at what was left of my house,” Skidmore said. “I thanked God for keeping my family and my three dogs safe.”
Skidmore walked around to the back of her house to find her dad standing, staring at the house. He laid his head on Skidmore’s shoulder and told her everything was going to be okay. The Skidmores are staying in a hotel for now but hope to move into a rent house by March 6.
“If people want to help right now the best thing to do is to just donate to our go fund me account,” Skidmore said. “We hope to start rebuilding in a month or so.”
Skidmore didn’t miss any school. She played in the softball tournament that Friday and Saturday, this helped get her mind off the fire. After losing everything, Skidmore wishes she could just slide down the hallway in her socks one more time.
“If anyone has lost their house like I have, I would tell them to stay strong,” Skidmore said. “The only mindset you can have is everything is okay. You can always make memories, even better than the ones before.”
