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People who want to donate household goods or gift cards for general-merchandise stores can contact Jody Hill at 482-1830. By ANITA BURKE Mail Tribune Sifting through the charred rubble of their rural Ashland home, John and Debbie Maulsby have found true treasures of a life that went up in flames last month while they were at the hospital bedside of their 13-year-old son, whose appendix had burst. John Maulsby, a third-grade teacher at Orchard Hill Elementary School, found his and his wife’s wedding rings in the ashes of their bedroom. Advertisement His wife, Debbie, attendance secretary at Ashland Middle School, discovered that a hand-crafted silver and turquoise watch from her father was safe in a coat pocket in the back of his car, not in the destroyed home. Their daughter, Rebekah, found in the remains of her room a scorched Bible study book with a smudged title page reading "Joy: How to Rejoice in Any Situation." The Maulsby family — John and Debbie and their four children, Rebekah, 19; John 18; Daniel, 17; and Joseph, 13 — has taken that message to heart as they find comfort in the fact that the whole family is safe and well and a community of friends has stepped up to help piece their lives back together. "Our theme right now is that we are blessed," John Maulsby said. They didn’t feel that way when the phone rang March 25 as John and Debbie sat at Ashland Community Hospital with Joseph as he recovered from a massive infection caused by a ruptured appendix. They thought the call was someone checking to see how he was doing. Instead, it was a call telling them that their home at 2592 Old Siskiyou Highway outside Ashland was on fire. "I just lost it," Debbie said. John calmed her and set off to the double-wide trailer to see what was happening. Their son Daniel had awakened to the smell of smoke. As thick black smoke filled the home, he escaped out a sliding door, then circled the house to make sure his older brother was out. Noting that his brother’s car was gone, he ran barefoot down the hill about an eighth of a mile to a neighbor’s house to report the fire, John Maulsby said. Jackson County Fire District No. 5 responded to battle the blaze, eventually bringing a bulldozer to push over smoldering walls and extinguish hot spots. As soon as friends and family heard about the fire, they rushed to the Maulsby’s aid. Co-workers from Ashland Middle School and fellow church members at Ashland Christian Fellowship who were headed out of town for spring break offered up their homes as a place to stay. The family is now staying in a friend’s guest house while their insurance agent helps them find a rental. John Maulsby said the family likely will sell the rural property after it’s cleaned up and look for a place in town, but it’s hard for them to imagine the future. "It’s like being in a storm," he said. "The light only shines two or three paces in front of you so only a little of the path is revealed." While they sort out what’s next, a friend and fellow Ashland Christian Fellowship member Jody Hill has stepped in to coordinate their needs and people who want to help. The family calls her their "G.A.," short for guardian angel. She’s organized a group of women to salvage family photos from scorched albums and is working with the Fellowship’s meals ministry to arrange food deliveries. She wants to coordinate donations of household goods or gift cards to general-merchandise stores so the family will get what they need when they get a house of their own, but won’t have to store things until then. Hill plans to have a community house-warming shower in late April or early May to help the family set up a household again. "We are like a brand new couple with nothing," John Maulsby said. "The other day I wanted to open a can of cashews for a snack and I had to go to Bi-Mart to get a can opener first." Still, as each family member catalogs their losses for insurance purposes, they often pause to remind one another that it’s only "stuff," Debbie Maulsby said. "We’re all OK," she said, noting that no family members were hurt in the fire and Joseph is over his infection and back in school this week. "At times, it seems like a bad dream, but also all the care, the love ..." John Maulsby said, his voice trailing off. Reach reporter Anita Burke at 776-4485, or e-mail OUT OF THE ASHES ">[email protected] . Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2006 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. 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