I woke this morning here at the beach near Brisbane, Australia about 6:30am, walked out to my desk to charge my iPhone, and saw I’d missed a message from my friend Helen in the UK.
I was NOT prepared for what I read!
“Notre Dame is on fire!!”
What????!!!!
I ran to turn on the TV and it was on the news — as I looked on, I was in total shock, and started crying.
This beautiful Cathedral has lived through 850 years of wars and all kinds of other hardships and devastations, and survived.
Recently she had been feeling a bit fragile, and desperately needed some work to keep her going; she was surrounded by scaffolding as the work crews started a daunting task.
I don’t know how the fire started, possibly something to do with the renovation, whatever the reason it is a miracle that there is any of it left.
And such a miracle that no-one was hurt or perished, for that I am truly grateful.
This has been a sad, sad day for Paris, for my friends, and all the people visiting Paris at the moment — my heart goes out to everyone, and I’m sending all my love and hugs across the kilometres.
On the other side of the coin, something I am so, so thrilled about is that I’ve spent some amazing summer days and evenings in and near Notre Dame over several decades, and I have wonderful videos and photos of me with friends right outside her doors.
Love you, Paris! XOXOX
Teena Hughes
LET'S CHAT