Sonia Tyler and her daughter with the Red Cross volunteers who helped her family after a devastating fire on Christmas Day in 2022. Marcenda Wilkes, Asilia Watkins, Sonia Tyler and Paul Bataillon (left to right).
By Jay Lawrence, Red Cross Public Affairs Volunteer
It was a perfect Christmas Eve, Sonia Tyler remembers. Three generations celebrating. Family from out of town. Her dad, mom and brother judging a gingerbread house competition. “Of course, everyone won,” she recalled, laughing.
The family was getting ready for Santa Claus the next morning. “It was supposed to be magical,” Sonia said.
But it was the total opposite. A fire spread in the early hours of that Christmas morning in 2022. Everyone got out – except for Sonia’s father, 72-year-old Randy Tyler, and her beloved 25-year-old brother Jason.
“My dad and brother were the nicest people you could ever meet,” she said. “To hear the news that the people you love so much are gone – it’s just horrible. I felt cursed. It just wasn’t fair. I was mad at God.”
Alaric Watkins, Jason Tyler, Asilia Watkins and Randy Tyler (left to right).
Sonia’s world had been turned upside down. Her mother was in the hospital. Her son Alaric, 10 at the time, had been treated for smoke inhalation. The house in DeKalb County and everything in it were gone.
Flash forward to now. After a grueling recovery of more than two years, Sonia’s thoughts turned to a group that had helped them immediately, on that Christmas Day — the American Red Cross.
She was especially aware of the Red Cross in her new job as chief of staff for DeKalb County Commissioner Michelle Long Spears. She wanted to meet and thank the volunteers who had helped the family with emergency aid and comfort that terrible morning.
And she did, at a Chick-fil-A, along with her mother Regine Tyler, her daughter Asilia, and her boyfriend Warren Terry.
The volunteers, Marcenda Wilkes and Paul Bataillon, veteran Disaster Action Team responders, were surprised – but grateful.
Sonia Tyler (left) hugs Red Cross Disaster Action Team volunteer Paul Bataillon. Bataillon helped the family following a home fire.
“In three years as a Red Cross volunteer, this is the first time this has happened,” Wilkes said. “And I thank you. I want you to know we’re behind you all the way.”
Red Cross volunteers don’t do it for the thanks, but Bataillon was smiling too, and understanding. “When we see people, they’ve got other things on their minds than us,” he said.
So, they took some time to get to know each other. Sonia asked why they became volunteers.
“I wanted to be with the Red Cross since I was a little girl,” Wilkes, now retired, told them.
For Bataillon, he and his wife wanted to do something meaningful after they retired. His father had been a Red Cross instructor. So Bataillon and his wife became Red Cross volunteers.
Sonia talked about her love for her family and their difficult path after the fire. They had moved three times, for example. Through it all, her daughter Asilia, now 10, had the “healthiest attitude of all of us. She told us to think about all the good things, making us laugh like my dad and Jason would have.”
People throughout the community helped the family after the fire. Their church, Glenn Memorial United Methodist, fed them, clothed them and provided financial help.
Now, things have started turning around – though they will never be the same. Sonia thought that the reunion was an important step.
“It was eye-opening to see all the people who come together to help after something like this. I wasn’t thinking about it at the time. And I just wanted to say thank you.”
On average, seven Americans die every day in home fires. Of the roughly 65,000 disasters the Red Cross responds to every year, the vast majority are home fires. Ninety percent of Red Crossers are volunteers, and their work is funded by the generosity of the American people. To volunteer or to donate, please go to redcross.org.
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