No matter how much you lose, you’ll always have your story.

Hours before wildfires swept across Los Angeles, one woman shared with a friend the grief of losing the love of her life.
She wished she could erase the pain, but the reminder came gently: our stories — even the painful ones — shape who we are.

Psychologists agree. We make sense of our lives through the stories we tell about ourselves. And when we deny or bury them, we lose not just memories, but pieces of our identity.

That truth was underscored when firestorms erupted later that day. Families fled their homes. Some returned to ashes. One couple with a baby lost everything.
Others, like a longtime resident in the Palisades, escaped with their lives but not their homes.

These are not just news updates or statistics.
They are stories that weave through our neighborhoods, our air, our roads, our relationships.
They are reminders that catastrophe leaves more than physical damage — it reshapes who we are and how we carry one another forward.

In the end, loss may change us, but it does not erase us.
What we keep, always, is our story.