by Deborah Allan

Created on: March 24, 2010   Last Updated: March 25, 2010

A year ago everything in my life was changing. Changing in ways that were wonderful. I was living alone in my three bedroom apartment, after my two roommates left. My boyfriend and I were trying to decide what we should do, as I could not afford the place by myself. My boyfriend had an apartment he shared with his father, and one evening he asked if I would like to move in with them. I had never lived with a boyfriend before, but I thought it would be a great idea, not only to save us money, but for me to get to know my boyfriend and him to get to know me differently.

So, in december of 08, I moved. Now, the only problem that occurred was I had to rent a storage unit to put my things in. My boyfriends apartment had everything, no need for me to clutter it up with my stuff. So off to the storage unit went my belongings, my whole life really. My furniture, my appliances, my memories. My whole life was in a 10 by 12 box and it was safe. Or so I thought.

You know how you have a moment when you think you should do something, but don't, and then you say you'll do it later. That was me. What was the thing I should have done? Bought fire insurance. I rented my storage unit in December, two days before christmas. As hectic as it already was, money was tight, and at that moment, an extra $20 a month was not much, but when you don't have it, you don't have it. So january came and went, work was busy, life in general was busy. Before I knew it, february had passed, march was half over, and the next day it was may. Okay, so I might be exaggerating, but you know how it goes.

The date that sticks out in my mind is May 15. My boyfriend and I had taken a long weekend from work, and were going to visit some family 4 hours away. My aunt and uncle had just moved for work, and their tv broke in the move. Well, I had a spare tv they could use, and we were going there anyways, why not lend them mine right. Eleven am, we are at the storage unit, and only then did we realize we needed to go through my stuff and make a list to get the insurance. But we had to go, get on the road and we grabbed the tv, went home, packed our stuff, and by 5 pm we were to meet a friend at the mall so we could follow her, as we had no idea where we were going.

On our way out of town, we had to pass my storage unit. This building had three other businesses attached, and it was not an uncommon occurance to see a lot of traffic there. But when we passed, and I saw the flames flowing out of my unit,

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