When I was really young, Easter was my favorite holiday. There were far more candies and colors at easter that I loved than at Halloween and I always had pet bunnies consistently, naming them things like Jellybean and Egghead. Then one fine year when I was 8, after a full day of coloring eggs and making cardboard feet for them so they could be placed around the house on tables and window sills (to greet the Easter Bunny), I accidentally caught our house on fire.
We were all sleeping soundly by the time the fire started and our cat Binks woke up our mom by sneezing in her face from the smoke. At first I wouldn’t wake up but eventually awoke to being drug down the hallway by my brother. The fire had started due to an event earlier that evening where I had pushed a blanket off the back of the couch while watching TV. It fell onto the baseboard heater behind the couch and caught the blanket and couch on fire.

I was really upset. As an 8 year old who LOVED Easter, it couldn’t possibly be because the house was on fire, nooo, I was upset because the “Easter Bunny would not be able to find us” if we had to stay in a motel. The thought of no candy was beyond horrible at that moment. I had worked so hard on coloring eggs and decorating and all day for nothing. I was never a spoiled kid and never cried over candy, but this was apparently my breaking point.

We stayed in the yard and watched the firemen deal with the small but damaging fire and eventually had to go stay in a motel. I was no doubt making a bit of a scene or at least asking the firemen cutely “how will the Easter Bunny find us”, knowing full and well I didn’t really believe (having an older brother, I was told long ago about the non existence of Santa, the Easter Bunny or Unicorns, but I knew how to play the “cute little kid who believed in Santa and the Easter Bunny” card pretty well). The next day, my mom told me to go look in the closet of the motel, and there waiting was a bucket of candy. When I saw all the candy, that had somehow been gathered just for me at 2 in the morning in a small town in Idaho, I knew it was from the Fire Fighters. I felt terrible. They had seen me upset about the stupid candy while our house nearly burned down and they tried to make me happy. I never pretended to believe in anything again.

Regardless, I still had pet bunnies till just a few years ago, I still love Easter Candy and Easter always makes me giddy. I hope you appreciate these photos as much as I do and remember, don’t put your couch in front of a baseboard heater, and if you do. No blankets.