Smoking Heights

"I'm afraid to jump down!" said seven year old Taylor Ray. She was on the edge of a window yelling down to a fire fighter. The Ray's house had caught on fire when Mrs. Ray went to bed with out turning off that boiling pot. Now Taylor was stuck with tow hard decisions; jumping, or burning. "Sweetie, this is Mommy!" Taylor's mom yelled from a piece of rolled up newspaper that she thought would enhance her voice. "All you have to do is jump, and Mommy will be right here to catch you, I promise!" Mrs. Ray had somehow gotten out of the house without grabbing Taylor. Her husband was on the job, truck driving, so he wasn't there to save his little girl. Taylor had finally gathered up enough courage to jump. "Okay Mommy, I'm gonna jump!" "Okay honey Mommy is right her!" Then Taylor heard a barking sound; it was their dog Lindster. "Wait Mommy I have to get Lindster!" "No honey Linster will be fine you just come down now!" But it was too late; Taylor had already stepped down off the window ledge and followed Lindster's voice. Outside her mom screamed for her, "TAYLOR!!", "TAYLOR!!" But Taylor didn't respond, she was too deep in the smoking house. "What are you people doing?!", "My baby is in that house and you haven't go her yet?!" A policeman attempted to calm her down, "M'am?" "That's Mrs. Ray!" she snapped back. "Mrs. Ray, if you could just calm down for us we would greatly appreciated it." "You listen to me and you listen good, until your child is trapped in a burning house, you don't tell me to calm, do you hear me?!!!". As Mrs. Ray was yelling, she looked over to her left and noticed the house caving in. "We're gonna need back up", one fire fighter said into the radio. "Roger that", another responded.

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"Mrs. Ray I'm sorry. We tried to getting to her but the house was just too burned down", said a sorry but somewhat hopeful fire fighter. "You mean to tell me my baby's dead?" Mrs. Ray said falling into her husbands arms. "We did all we could do."

A couple of weeks later the Ray's attended their seven year old daughter's funeral. Her body was burned so bad in the fire, that doctors insisted she cremated. A few days later a memorial was held for Taylor. More than a hundred people attended.

The Ray's have yet to get over their traumatic loss of a child.