By Ram Sharma

It was an ordinary day – until it wasn’t. For Catherine Truckley and her husband, retirement had just settled into a gentle rhythm.

“We recently retired and were enjoying getting out and meeting friends,” Catherine said. “We had been living in our home since 1989, and we were very comfortable with how the home suited us as we raised a family.”

In their Verona, Pennsylvania home, where they raised their children and built a life together, the couple was beginning the next phase of their lives.

Then, in March, an ordinary Thursday morning turned into a nightmare. Catherine had just returned home from breakfast with friends when her husband David, back from church, discovered smoke seeping under their daughter’s bedroom door. By the time Catherine arrived, he was stumbling out of the room, blinded and choking.

“He opened the door and was almost overwhelmed by the smoke,” Catherine said.

She helped her husband downstairs to safety and attempted to go back into the smoky room to rescue her daughter’s dog.

“I was looking at the fire and thinking, that’s not so bad – after I get her dog out, I’ll get a wet towel and beat the flames down,” she said.

But the fire was more intense than she anticipated. Catherine managed to pull the dog out, but the pet had already been suffocated by smoke. Despite her desperate attempts to perform CPR, the dog didn’t survive.

“It was the most difficult part for me,” Catherine said. “I was heartbroken about the dog.”

The emotional anchor of her home was lost before firefighters arrived. Amid the chaos that followed, a feeling of shock and despair took hold. Fire and smoke had damaged the upper floor of their home. Their food was contaminated. They were lost, bereaved, and without a home.

After the police, firefighters and paramedics came, someone else arrived too: the American Red Cross.

“The American Red Cross volunteers showed up within a few hours of the fire,” Catherine said. “They sat with us, expressing condolences about our daughter’s dog and saying they were going to have a pet bereavement counselor call us. We didn’t know that such professionals existed, and we were grateful.”

Even though the Truckleys could stay with another daughter nearby, the Red Cross volunteers urged them to accept financial assistance, explaining that some unexpected needs might arise.

“In addition to the financial assistance, they gave each of us an emergency care kit – toiletries, tissues and a blanket,” Catherine said. “They asked us about any medications that we needed and arranged for us to get replacements.”

Red Cross volunteers also helped Catherine navigate their next steps, including suspending cable and internet service.

“I wouldn’t have thought to call Verizon until I got our next bill,” Catherine explained. “The volunteers saved us a ton of money from the start.”

In the weeks that followed, the Red Cross continued to help.

“In the days after the fire, several volunteers reached out, verifying we got our medications, asking if anything changed,” Catherine said. “They did this for a couple of weeks to make sure we were okay.”

Recovery has been, in Catherine’s words, “a process.” She said the Truckley family received overwhelming kindness from their community, church, and family, which helped them feel a sense of hope again.

“Frankly, I knew the Red Cross helped during natural disasters, but I never gave much thought to what it meant when events happened on a small or local scale,” Catherine said. "I’ve been telling everyone I have a new perspective and grateful appreciation as to what the American Red Cross does.”

While large disasters often dominate headlines, about 175 times a day, Red Cross volunteers support a family affected by a home fire or other local disaster. These smaller emergencies may not get as much attention, but they cause just as much heartache and need for those affected.

When the worst happens, local Red Cross Disaster Action Team volunteers quickly connect with families to help get them back on their feet. From offering a shoulder to cry on, to providing shelter or supplies, to connecting with financial assistance, our volunteers ensure that families don’t have to face tough times alone.