For O.C. Family, Love Amid Tragedy

FOUNTAIN VALLEY — Tragedy nearly ruined Christmas for the Ericksons, but it failed to kill their holiday spirit.

They still were mourning the recent death of the family patriarch when one misfortune followed another. A house flood. A burglary. A Dec. 20 fire that damaged their home and killed a newborn litter of puppies.

“We keep asking ourselves, ‘What else can happen to us?’ ” Abbie Erickson said from the hotel where she and her mother and five other family members temporarily are living.

But today, Christmas Day, the Ericksons gather to celebrate what they have left.

“It’s the tragedies that make us persevere,” said Erickson’s mother, Lorraine, who is facing her first Christmas without her husband. “We’ve had our hard times, but in the long run, we have each other and we’ll live.”

The Ericksons’ plight has touched many in the community. The house fire was just a routine call for the firefighters until the neighbors came by and started telling the Ericksons’ story.

“My crew was in tears,” Fountain Valley Battalion Chief Bob McVey said.

“Even after all their ordeals, they were so appreciative and even sent us a bouquet of flowers,” McVey said. “They lost a lot, including their Christmas gifts.”

The firefighters were so moved, they invited the family to Fire Station 1 for Christmas dinner tonight and have quietly started a collection of gifts for the littlest Ericksons.

As word has spread, people from all over the city have been calling the department, offering donations.

“The phones are ringing off the hook,” McVey said Wednesday.

As sad as 1997 has been, the close-knit family is determined to cope by relying on laughter and love. Even when they recall the last few months, it is with a mixture of tears and chuckles.

The family’s travails began in June, when Vince Erickson, the 68-year-old head of the family, died of heart problems. Two weeks later, his faithful 17-year-old dachshund, Sherlock, stopped eating and died--of a broken heart, family members are convinced.

During the first week of September, Abbie Erickson, 21, was temporarily knocked unconscious while playing on an Orange Coast College soccer team.

A few days later, the Ericksons’ Fountain Valley home flooded after a cracked toilet burst. Earlier this month, burglars broke in and stole a computer, a compact disc player and other valuables.

Then five days ago, a fire started by a faulty halogen lamp ripped through their home, destroying almost everything. Family members escaped. Their two pit bulls--Brownie and Buster--were rescued by a neighbor, but seven newborn puppies perished.

As she sifted through the burned remains of her home Wednesday, Lorraine Erickson pointed out the damage: the blackened walls, singed family photos, furniture and clothes covered with soot.

Her Barbra Streisand compact disc and collection of Disney videotapes were warped by the fire’s intense heat. The linoleum, which recently replaced the floors destroyed in the flood, melted.

A guidance clerk at Santiago High School in Garden Grove, Lorraine Erickson pointed out the family heirlooms that survived, including her husband’s ashes, encased in a marble urn. His room, including books and four trunks containing historic memorabilia about former President Abraham Lincoln--who the Ericksons say is a distant relative by marriage--also were left unscathed.

“It’s ironic,” Lorraine Erickson said, her eyes glistening while scanning his room.

The blaze broke out at 6:08 p.m. as the family sat in the kitchen, eating dinner. McVey said firefighters from his city and Huntington Beach contained the blaze within 16 minutes, but not before it caused about $100,000 worth of damage.

Neighbors, friends and even strangers have reached out to the Ericksons--an extended family that includes Lorraine, 52, her daughters Abbie and Paula, 18, and son Vincent, 15. Also living with them is former daughter-in-law Jacque, 26, and her two children, Gage, 7, and Marina, 5.

The touching gestures are appreciated, but, besides tonight’s dinner with the firefighters and a few other free meals, the Ericksons said they have been hesitant to accept handouts. They said their homeowner’s insurance will pay to rebuild their house.

“There’s nothing people can really do for us because, I mean, we’re all here. We’re all alive,” Abbie Erickson said.

Nevertheless, the phone calls and visits have cheered the family and served as a reminder of the true meaning of Christmas.

“Christmas isn’t about material things,” Lorraine Erickson said. “Those things can disappear, burn up. What you really need to have is love. It’s so important to have love in your life.”

This year, the Ericksons will have no tree, no stockings filled with presents, no mantel to hang them on. But, they said, they will have cherished memories of Christmases past.

Each year, Vince Erickson would dress as Santa and haul gifts to Native American children on reservations in Arizona. He decorated the tree, wrapped all the presents and constructed a miniature holiday village for his children.

“He was the kind of man who always stopped on the freeway to help someone in need,” his widow said.

“He made our lives joyous, and he was the one who taught us that you can never look at an object and think that it’s only got one use. That’s why we know we’ll survive,” Lorraine Erickson said, adding that she is looking forward to 1998.