From the couch in her temporary Hawthorne hotel room, Altadena has never felt farther away for Irene Nelson.
At 97 years old, Nelson has never experienced this much shock after losing her home of more than 50 years in the Eaton Fire.
“It’s just too much. It was just entirely too much. I just shook. I still can’t believe it,” Nelson said.
Nelson escaped the fire with her life, but not much more, from the home she and her husband purchased in the 1960s.
The Nelsons were one of the first Black families to move into Altadena, a longtime refuge for African-American families legally barred from buying homes in other parts of LA County.
“I lost my house after all these years,” she explained. “We had 19 fruit trees. We had our court where we had our garden. We had a lot, a lot of nice memories there.”
Nelson’s home stood at the corner of Fair Oaks Avenue and Pine Street, where the only thing left standing now is her chimney.
It was the home where she and her late husband raised their family.
“It’s just an awful thing to happen to anyone, to lose everything you’ve worked hard for for so many years,” she said.
One of Nelson’s sons, Norman Nelson, said it was always his late father’s dream to raise a family in Altadena.
“His focus was, we’re going to have a family here in this community,” said Norman about his late father. “We’re going to grow together, have a grandchild together, and really make it a focal spot not only for our family, but for that community there.”
Today, the Nelson family property sits on a block that was entirely decimated by fire, surrounded by standing chimneys and not much else.
But make no mistake, the Nelsons said they can’t wait to go back.
“That’s our plan for the future. It’s getting over the shock, stand up, dust ourselves off, understand the tragedy did happen and that we can overcome it together,” Norman said.
His mother agrees.
“I’d love to go back,” she said. “I hope and pray I can go back, and I just know everything’s going to be all right.”
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