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May 16, 2010
Brookfield family loses everything
Brookfield family loses everything in fire, but rebuilds life with community support
Vinti Singh, STAFF WRITER
Published: 10:19 p.m., Saturday, May 15, 2010
Peter Robb, of Brookfield, with his children, left to right, Logan, 8; Lily, 12 ;and Liam,10. The photograph was taken shortly after a fire destroyed their home on Elbow Hill Road in Brookfield in January. Photo: Contributed Photo / The News-Times Contributed
Peter Robb, of Brookfield, with his children, left to right, Logan, 8; Lily, 12 ;and Liam,10. The photograph was taken shortly after a fire destroyed their home on Elbow Hill Road in Brookfield in January. Photo: Contributed Photo / The News-Times Contributed Page 1 of 1
BROOKFIELD -- "Why am I awake on a Sunday morning?" Peter Robb asked himself on a chilly January morning. He was up well before dawn, and couldn't get back to sleep. He made his way downstairs, put on a pot of coffee, restocked the wood stove and settled in front of the TV.
Then he heard a crackling noise. It sounded like a mouse was trying to chew through some cellophane. The cottage he lived in was built in the 1850s, so mice were part of the territory.
He got up to check out the noise. The stove was working fine. He looked up, and that's when he saw, through a small slit in the vent, that the roof and rafters were on fire. The blaze was so intense, he could hear it on the first floor.
Still in a T-shirts and boxers, he woke up his three children and piled them into the car. He couldn't find his home phone and his cell phone wasn't picking up a signal.
He had no choice but to drive from Elbow Hill Road to the police station and tell them his house was on fire.
Barefoot and barely clothed, Robb and his children watched crews put out the flames. Their house was destroyed. They lost everything except for a few clothes, toys, photos and odds and ends.
Logan Robb, 8, said what he missed most was his stuffed animal Tiddly, that he and his father would cuddle with at bedtime.
"But I told my kids, the stuff we lost is just stuff," Robb said. "And we can replace things."
The date was January 31. As a single dad trying to support three children on his own, Robb did not have renter's insurance. He is a professional tree trimmer, but had gotten no work in the winter months and was basically unemployed. He wanted to stay in Brookfield to keep his kids in the school system. Also, the children's great aunt lives there.
A friend of Robb's got in touch with Peter Brady, known locally as the Handy Dandy Handyman, later that day.
When he retired in 2000, Brady devoted himself full-time to his non-profit ministry , which is spiritually based out of St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Brookfield. The ministry builds ramps for handicapped seniors to get out of their homes and does odd jobs for seniors, widowed, sick and unemployed people.
"I heard he was a single dad with three children," Brady said. "When I hear about children, that gets to me."
Robb and Brady met on Feb. 1 at Panera Bread for lunch. Brady listened to Robb's story and said he would do whatever he could to help.
"He put all his other projects on hold for us," Robb said.
Brady has an e-mail contact network of more than 2,000 people in Connecticut and New York.
He had recently reached out to the network to help out two cancer patients. "I hate to ask again," he titled the e-mail. He asked them for cash and gift card donations.
Less than two weeks later, 140 people responded from Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, Tennessee, Maryland, New Jersey, Florida and Illinois. They donated $10,000 in cash and $600 in gift cards.
Robb and his children lived with their great aunt while he looked for a new home. He finally found a three-bedroom home on Nabby Road that is owned by the Brookfield Nature Conservancy.
Brady reached out to his network again, this time asking for furniture and other home goods. The response, again, was overwhelming. With donations from 13 families, there was enough to furnish the entire house.
Saturday, March 18, a crew of volunteers moved all of the furniture into the house by 11:30 a.m.
Afterwords, the crew went out to John's Best Pizza in Brookfield.
"The two boys liked their new room so much they didn't want to leave it to go to lunch," Brady said.
Brady said checks and gift cards are still trickling in for the family.
"It's been overwhelming," Robb said. "I have to hold back sometimes because I feel like I am going to explode. I don't feel deserving of all this generosity. It's very hard to put your pride in your back pocket and receive when you just want to give."
Robb said he is there to help the Handy Dandy Handyman Ministry whenever he is needed, and his oldest child, Lily, 12, said she looked forward to volunteering in the Rake n' Bake, the ministry's biggest event.
Brady said the Robbs are back on their feet and they will be just fine.
"(Peter Robb) is a hard worker and an aggressive worker, and I like supporting people like that," Brady said. "I like people that don't just take, but ask how they can give back."
Liam Robb, 10, said he was impressed with the community support and happy to get a new house.
"I'm thankful," he said.
Posted by hdhm at May 16, 2010 9:51 AM