The day after the fire (technically the day of the fire, since it happened at 2 am), Brooke and I went to the apartments so I could take pictures.
As we were leaving, we saw a fireman standing in my apartment. He was trying to put out a small fire that was still burning. He picked up an object and it fell open, and papers fell out and fluttered down to the ground next to the pond.
I recognized that he was holding my medical records mini-file, that all my documentation about my cancer treatments was still there…albeit some of the pages were slightly burned, and some of them likely went into the pond. I regret not trying to go over there and pick some of them up.
But what I really regret is not yelling up to the fireman and asking him if he could toss my computer down.
I think back to that event every now and then, and every time I berate myself for being so stupid as to think that someone would retrieve my hard drive for me “later”.