Like I said, I celebrated both Christmas and Hanukkah. As a kid, I was always so excited to celebrate Hanukkah because we got gifts for 8 nights of the holiday.
We’d typically celebrate at my grandparents’ house where all of my cousins would go as well.
One year, though, I dealt with a traumatic experience. My grandparents would light the menorah on a side table in the living room. I walked over near the table and then turned around to talk to my one year old cousins who were sitting on the chair. I saw my cousin point her finger in the air. I turned around calmly and said “dad I think my dress is on fire.”
Everyone yelled, and my father threw over the table and grabbed the table cloth, and threw it over me to put out the fire.
I started to cry afterward, and I remember my sister telling me I was fake crying and I didn’t even get burned.
I had extremely long hair as a kid, and it was a blessing my hair didn’t catch fire.
My mother was really upset about this, seeing the dress I was wearing said non flammable. I recall her calling the company the next day to yell at them over the phone and say my daughter caught on fire in this dress. The company told my mom they would send out a new one, to which my mother yelled back. I don’t want a new flammable dress, then hung up in anger.
Thinking back I’m not sure how a dress could be made non flammable, but it clearly was not.
Since catching fire, I was terrified to be near fire. After the holidays, school started back up, and I had my first cooking class at school. We went over to the stoves and had to practice turning them on. I panicked and told the teacher I can’t do that. She snapped at me and said it’s part of cooking.
I told her after I caught fire this past week, so I’m terrified to be near fire. She then told me that if I didn’t want to use the stove due to that I’d need a drs note to tell her why. I said I just told you why, and she said I’d need a note.
I lived for many years, terrified of fire. Now I’m ok being near fire, but if I smell smoke, I always panic that I might have caught on fire.
Every year, when I light my menorah, this memory crosses my mind.
The Outspoken Advocate 