Halloween Miracle?

Story & Photos by Ashlie Hazen / Ponca City Monthly Contributing Writer

I’m not sure if it’s my habit for procrastinating or my Adam for a Halloween party in his classroom. need for things to be perfect that always has me working I had been down in the basement working on my youngest son’s Halloween costume until the last for two hours when I heard the voice of second. But I never dreamed it would be the very thing that my husband asking if I needed anything. would save the lives of my three children, and possibly my Realizing that I had forgotten to grab a sock husband and myself. before I headed downstairs, I asked him to

It started when my youngest son was five. I ordered grab one before he joined me. his costume online, like I had been doing for him and my When he returned without the other two boys for the last 15 years. But when it arrived, the sock and a worried look on face, I pants were way too long and required hemming before was slightly annoyed. “The lights he could wear them. I had procrastinated on ordering the won’t work, and I think I smell costume, so there was no time to hire someone to fix it. something funny, maybe,” he said. I thought to myself, “How hard could it be?” Turns out it Rolling my eyes and thinking was harder to hem bell bottoms than I had expected, and to myself that he’d gone crazy, I I was literally making the last stitch as stopped sewing he was running out the door with the and started up excitement that every five-year-old has on Halloween night.

I remember telling my husband Travis that night, as we pilfered through the kids’ candy (don’t judge, we all do it), how much fun I had fixing and even adding my own ideas to the pants. I decided right then that I was going to make next year’s costume from scratch. With only one child left in the trick-or-treat age group, I was optimistic that I could create an entire costume.

Over the next year, I bought a cheap sewing machine, and taught myself the basics. First, I made Edward Scissorhands, followed by Jack Frost (“The Nightmare Before Christmas”), then Saul Hudson (better known as Slash from Guns N’ Roses), followed by Beetlejuice, and finally the Mad Hatter from “Alice in Wonderland.” Does anyone notice a theme? All of these characters (except for Slash) are from Tim Burton movies. My son has adopted his father’s love for ‘80s hair bands, and begged to be Slash. So what’s a mom to do but let the kid be Slash?

Now, you are probably wondering how a costume procrastination saved our lives. On Halloween morning 2019, I woke up very early (I am NOT a morning person) to put the finishing touches on the Mad Hatter costume, in the hopes that I could send it to school that morning with

Adam for a Halloween party in his classroom. I had been down in the basement working for two hours when I heard the voice of my husband asking if I needed anything. Realizing that I had forgotten to grab a sock before I headed downstairs, I asked him to grab one before he joined me.

When he returned without the sock and a worried look on face, I was slightly annoyed. “The lights won’t work, and I think I smell something funny, maybe,” he said. Rolling my eyes and thinking to myself that he’d gone crazy, I stopped sewing and started up the basement stairs. I got to the bottom of the staircase that leads up to all four bedrooms and flicked the light switch, but nothing happened. It was a little alarming, considering that the light is a chandelier with four bulbs, and what are the odds that they would all burn out at the exact same time?

When I reached the fifth step, something hit my foot, so I looked up at the exact moment the chandelier was dropping out of the ceiling. I instantly smelled smoke and saw flames from the new hole in the ceiling. FIRE!!!

Travis and I opened the bedroom doors yelling, “FIRE! Get up and get outside!” I grabbed anything that was a picture on the way out the door as the three of us were calling 911. I couldn’t believe three of us even had the sense to call 911.

Then I remembered … THE COSTUME! I don’t recommend or encourage anyone to ever do what I’m about to tell you I did, but I ran down into the basement and grabbed that costume. The hours, blood, sweat, and tears that I had put into that costume meant there was no way it was burning up with my house. NO WAY!

The fire department responded within five minutes, and before we knew it, they were inside fighting the fire. A big shout-out and thank you to our amazing firemen and firewomen — they truly were amazing. Every time one of them came out, I would hear my husband ask, “Is it out yet?” to which he or she would respond, “Not yet.”

My childhood home, which happens to be just around the corner from our house, caught fire one summer years ago, and something I heard one of the firemen say that day has stuck with me. Once a fire reaches your attic, it’s much harder to save the home, and every second counts. Although the fire department arrived quickly, the fire started in my attic, as far as I could tell. I just knew I was going to watch my house burn to the ground. But my babies, husband, animals and myself were all safe, and I knew everything else was just stuff.

The fire marshal told us that he was almost certain it was the wiring in that hallway chandelier that caused the fire, and then he told us the part that still sends a chill down my spine.

I have never met anyone who went to bed with their house on fire, and all woke up and walked out of their still-standing house eight hours later. WOW! There are so many little things that saved us that night and morning, and if just one of them would have been ever so slightly different, it could have led to a very grave outcome. On a normal morning, we all would have been sound asleep upstairs when the fire got oxygen. Had my husband awakened 30 minutes later, my entire family would have been two floors above me when the fire got oxygen. If I hadn’t forgotten to grab that sock before I started the costume, my kids would have been two floors above my husband and me when the fire got oxygen.

I often think about the odds of that particular morning going exactly as it did, with the fire getting oxygen at the exact moment I was walking up the stairs. God, luck, three guardian angels, a Halloween costume, and procrastination saved my family. As a bonus, those fine men and woman also saved my house with no water damage and very little structural damage. I wish I could say the repairs went as smoothly, but that’s another story!

It all worked out the way it was meant to, and I wouldn’t change a thing about it. My three incredible sons — Noah, Hunter, and Adam — my amazing husband Travis, our cute kitty Oliver, and sweet dog Izzie all lived to tell about it, and that is all that matters to me!