Dr Warren Skidmore came back to the Black Country from California after the family was destroyed in the Eaton fires last month.
Despite the upheaval he was honouring a commitment made well before the fires, which saw around 20 people lose their lives
Despite the upheaval he was honouring a commitment made well before the fires, which saw around 20 people lose their lives
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00:00We're here in Wordsley at Wordsley Community Centre, where the Skidmore family have travelled a long way to come back and celebrate Warren's dad's birthday, Jim, who's 90 this weekend.
00:14How are you doing Warren?
00:16Pretty good actually. Are you enjoying the weather?
00:19Yeah, it's not been great today has it, but you said when you came over from California it wasn't great there either.
00:25Now it's mudslides. A month ago it was a wildfire destroying the town and now it's mudslides and heavy rain.
00:36I mean, you've been through the mill, haven't you really, as a family? I think you're coming out the other side.
00:42But you did say at the start that you weren't sure whether you'd make it for Jim's 90th birthday. How does it feel to be over here in the UK for that?
00:50It's pretty good actually. It's very good. It shows that we're managing to regain some normality and some stability in life.
00:59A month ago we hadn't got a suitcase. We hadn't got anything.
01:04Being homeless.
01:06Yeah.
01:08And we've managed to get things together.
01:13A long-term rental.
01:16Isabel, tell us a little bit about that. You managed to get a long-term rental. A bit of stability for the family.
01:23A bit of stability because there were 10,000 homes that were displaced due to the fire.
01:29So if people even had their homes standing up to the fire, they still cannot live in their homes.
01:34So that's a lot of humans to have to look for accommodation.
01:39So we were lucky and we found a long-term flat to rent.
01:45There was already sort of a housing crisis anyway. So yeah, very fortunate to have found a place.
01:53Yeah. And the fundraiser, Warren, reached over $68,500. How has that helped and what do you feel about people who contributed to that?
02:03I'm super thankful to folks that contributed. Many people are family and friends, but there's complete strangers that contributed.
02:12So it's pretty overwhelming.
02:16And for me, as the dad of a family, it gives a lot of reassurance.
02:23There's so much uncertainty in the rebuilding process, the timeline and the cost.
02:29And to have those extra resources from the GoFundMe, it just gives some assurance that counters all this uncertainty.
02:43Yeah. And how long are you here for? You're only here until Monday, I believe.
02:47Two full days, yeah. We landed on Friday, sat this Sunday and we fly on Monday.
02:53You do. But you're used to jetting across the Atlantic, Isabel and Hannah. You've been to the UK quite a lot, I guess.
03:01How do you find the weather as compared to California generally?
03:05It's cold. Yeah. All the drizzle, the grey sky. Yeah. Strange.
03:16And by the way, there is a reason you're wearing the cowboy hats. It's a Western-themed party for Jim tonight.
03:23Yeah, my dad's 90th birthday barn dance.
03:26Yeah. So it's going to be a big occasion. There's a lot of tables here. The family and friends are arriving.
03:33You're all looking forward to it. It's so good you could make it as well after all you've been through.
03:38I mean, I thank my dad for arranging his birthday at this time so that we can give thanks to all the people that have given us support in the last week.
03:47So yeah, for that it's actually a good opportunity because lots of the folks here are people that have wished us well and sent us care packages and donated money and all that kind of thing to help us.
04:02And the emotional support too, which has been overwhelming.
04:07Wonderful. Just before you go, how's the work going? Because you've got this project that you're working on, isn't it? You're a scientist.
04:13Yeah, yeah. And you haven't really missed much work despite the problems you've had.
04:19I'm a bit of a workaholic, so in my mind I've missed a lot of work. But my employer, the project, the folks in the project have been really accommodating.
04:32I've needed to take time off to sort things out and they've also been very supportive.
04:38That GoFundMe was set up by one of my colleagues at work, so I'm very grateful for that.
04:44My laptop burned in the fire, so within days I had a new laptop and that kind of thing.
04:51So they've been super supportive. We even evacuated to my office.
04:56We were there for a few days while work was going on.
05:01So work has been really supportive and it's still going on for me.
05:12Well, I'm glad you could make it from all of us at the Express and Star. Enjoy your evening.
05:17Thanks very much.
05:19Two, one...
05:21Happy Birthday Jim!