Years Of Memories Reduced To Ashes

BROOKSVILLE - Berdie Hopkins woke up in a strange bed Christmas morning.

For a moment she was confused and then the memories came flooding back.

This was her daughter's house.

She would not be going home today. Not today, not ever.

And any chance of enjoying the Christmas she had known for the past four decades was out of the question, too.

The acrid stench of smoke that clung to her clothes was reminder enough of that.

"It's not any easier" two weeks later, Hopkins, 63, said Tuesday. "It's something you have to live with."

On the morning of Christmas Eve, Hopkins was on the phone when she heard a loud popping noise coming from the living room. She saw smoke and ran outside to grab the garden hose.

It was too late.

Flames were quick to conquer the two-bedroom house and left a gutted hull of Hopkins' home for the past 40 years.

The county's fire marshal, Rick Tincher, later determined that an overloaded electrical outlet was to blame. The popping sound was likely the old pine walls heating up, said Tincher, who points to the fire as a reminder to install fire alarms.

No one was injured in the fire. Both Hopkins and her 25-year-old grandson, Philip Hopkins, made their escape before the fire spread.

That's all that mattered to Andrew Jr. Hopkins, who built the house by hand for his wife and growing family forty years ago.

Even at 71, his early-bird habits had him up and out of the door by 6 a.m. the morning he lost his house. When he returned home to find smoldering ruins, his first thoughts were for his wife and grandson.

Someone "told me they was out and I was satisfied," he said.

Although only three people physically lived at 7267 Mobley Road, a sprawling Hopkins clan is now without a nucleus.

The house was the setting of holidays, birthdays, prayer meetings and any number of miscellaneous gatherings.

Andrew Hopkins built onto the original house to make room for the budding family, but any sizeable get-together would inevitably have to spill into the shaded front yard.

Christmas in 2007 was expected to follow the same tradition but, obviously, that didn't happen.

The timing made it tough to procure prescription medicines lost in the fire and basic necessities. Even Wal-Mart is closed on Christmas day.

For now, Berdie Hopkins and her husband are staying with their daughter, Sheryle Brown. If there is a bright spot in their misfortune, their grandson is having a blast with grandma and grandpa in his home, Brown said.

It's tough to adjust. Berdie Hopkins still finds herself getting up and wandering her daughter's house late at night, much as she did in her old home.

Not that there's much left of the house anymore. Demolition began last week and on Tuesday only a concrete foundation served as evidence of what once stood there.

The family plans to rebuild on the spot and a roofer has already offered his services for free. But first the family needs the funds to put up some walls.

Brown is sad to see the source of her childhood memories reduced to rubble, but her optimism is stronger.

"Home is where the heart is," she said. "My dad taught me that."