I worked at Papa Joe's Italian Restaurant in Brooksville, Fl for the past 11 years. January 23rd was a typical day, kids to school, housework and playing with my two year old, then off to work at the restaurant. I closed the restaurant and headed home to catch some rest, it was going to be a very busy weekend at work. It was early the next morning that I awoke to my dad's voice calling from my front door. He hugged me and told me that Papa Joe's had caught fire and burned to the ground overnight. Still half asleep, I grabbed my phone and saw several missed calls and text messages. I reluctantly dialed my manager, Jeannie who answered sorrowfully crying "Loretta! Its gone, It's really bad". It was a frigid morning, the coldest of the year. My husband called to let the office know he wouldn't make it in, I grabbed my jacket and threw on my boots and followed my heart to Papa Joe's. Heart pounding, gripping the steering wheel, I felt as though I was in an alternate reality, like a dream. As I turned the corner and caught the first glimpse of the smoldering building, tears welled up from deep within me and I sobbed out loud. It was in this moment that I lived the cliche of "you don't know what you've got until its gone". Gone it was, surrounded by news reporters and firefighters and cars lined down the side of the road I braced myself for the scene I was about to witness. As I stepped out of my car, my co-workers and the Girratana family were huddled, freezing, silently gazing upon the burnt rubble that housed 33 years of memories. In the days that followed, normal was no where to be found, displacement had taken its place.
Among a heap of chaotic rubbish, twisted metal and shattered glass, eleven pillars proudly stand tall, undisturbed and seemingly in disregard of the fate of their counterparts. Fire engulfed and consumed this place leaving everything it touched destroyed, yet those pillars remain uncompromised. Pillars are significant in architecture as they hold the massive weight of a roof, in ancient hieroglyphics they represent stability, in the Bible they signify strength. As I look at the devistation of our restaurant, I cant help but focus on those pillars and what they represent. As if they stand at attention reminding us that our strength comes from God and he is the source of our stability. God is the pillar within us that holds us up when we can't stand on our own. The Papa Joe's family as well as the entire community suffered a great loss when our building fell however, that building was not the source of our strength and stability as that comes from above. Our building will be rebuilt upon the remaining foundation and our roof will once again be held up by those eleven pillars that declare hope. Papa Joe's will rise again with renewed strength and will again serve as a pillar to the community.
