Mike Wolanin | The Republic Sherry Yeaton stands in what is left of her and her husband’s bedroom as she looks for salvageable items at their home in Columbus, Ind., Monday, July 17, 2023. The Yeaton’s home caught fire and burned down June 22, 2023. They were out of town on vacation when the fire occurred.
The gallows humor kicked in soon after Mark and Sherry Yeaton arrived at the charred devastation from the June 22 fire at 5600 Deaver Road southwest of Columbus.
“We’re thinking of having a fire sale,” Mark said, staring at a structure so scorched that much of the exterior siding was literally peeled away like wallpaper. Items such as formerly beautiful couches and other furniture were covered in everything from soot to collapsed roofing material.
Humor is merely part of his in-the-moment coping mechanism. But then he turned serious when someone referred to what was in front of him as the couple’s home. He offered a soft-but-direct correction.
“This has merely been our shelter (for 28 years),” said the Southside Elementary School teacher and Bartholomew Consolidated Elementary School Corp. bus driver. “And the Lord is our shelter. But our home is really our family.”
The Yeatons, long passionate about their Christian faith, wanted to tell part of their fire experience story to highlight the healing love of others and what they see as the merciful and gracious hand of God.
That family they refer to includes daughter Courtney Fisher and husband Danny. The couple was living with the Yeatons, and are with them now while they all have taken up residence for a time with Steve Yeaton, Mark’s brother known to many as pastor of First Christian Church in Columbus, and his wife Cindy. The clergyman has had the opportunity to watch his brother and sister-in-law up close after the fire.
Steve knows that when the pair were in Florida celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary when their empty home caught fire, their ensuing phone calls to him and other relatives were inquiries about the safety and rest of the firefighters battling the blaze. And Steve knows that, days after the fire, Mark and Sherry were driving on County Road 150W near their burned-out house.
And there they found another stunned family whose home had recently burned. They stopped, introduced themselves, listened to their needs, and prayed with them. Then Mark and Sherry headed off to a local store to buy needed supplies for that family. Even amid their own need, they met the needs of another.
“They seem to truly living out their faith amid this,” Steve said. “And if that means anything, it means that this isn’t all there actually is — and that God will provide. They’re really leaning into all that.”
Mark and Sherry acknowledge that such is true.
“I don’t think either one of us have really cried yet (from sadness),” Sherry said, though she acknowledged a real sense of some degree of loss. “When I have teared up, it’s been because of the kindness of others. I mean, I know eventually it’s going to hit me one day and I’m going to just fall apart probably.“
You wonder about the kindness of others? How about dozens of their Ogilville Christian Church members gathering outside their home after the fire to pray for the family and begin addressing needs? How about 17 fire engines that the couple were told responded to the blaze?
How about Mark’s Southside students cajoling their parents to take them to the Yeaton property so they could express their sadness to their teacher? And what of the preschoolers from Ogilville Christian, where Sherry serves as director, who had their parents bring them by just so they could hug Sherry?
More than just the couple’s faith and their resolve survived the flames. That was among the first things Sherry noticed on her first walk amid the rubble.
“I lifted up this blanket that I had folded at the end of the sofa that was in our bedroom — and there was my Bible,” she said. “Not a piece of anything on it was charred, and not wet. It smells like smoke, but nothing on it was burned.”
Her favorite Scripture for peace in the aftermath of all this is an excerpt from Psalm 91: “He will shelter you with his wings. His faithful promises are your armor and protection. His huge, outstretched arms protect you. Under them you are perfectly safe.”
Because their insurance is expected to cover all their structural loss, they already plan to rebuild on the site. But first, they must sort through the rubble for items of emotional and sentimental value. They salvaged keepsakes such as their wedding photos.
Other items such as family scrapbooks were in off-the-property storage ever since the couple expanded the home in January 2022.
A firefighter rescued Mark’s much-publicized, one-of-a-kind Indiana-shaped guitar, autographed by a mix of Hoosier celebrities, from the Yeatons’ detached shop to save the priceless item. Mark lost several other guitars, though. When he showed up recently at the local Guitar City & Sound Inc. to replace one of the instruments, the owner presented Mark with a nice, used guitar — free.
The husband and wife, known for their outreach to others — Mark has raised thousands of dollars the past decade alone for Christian nonprofits on cross-country cycling excursions and more — say that perhaps their toughest challenge the past month has been graciously accepting help from others.
“It’s been really beautiful,” Mark said. “It’s been a little awkward, too, and very humbling.”
He understands that people have asked him how he and his wife can be so steady after such trauma. But he counts blessings, beginning with the fact that that no one was home at the time of the blaze, and no emergency personnel were injured.
“And you have to remember: We nearly lost our daughter when she was a baby,” he said. “Everything is perspective. Literally everything.”
His small, handmade gifts he has given to those who have supported his charity cycling rides in recent years reflect that attitude. One of his items has been artsy crosses he has creatively shaped from bicycle chains.
Attached to the cross has been this Scripture from Romans 5: 3-5 that seems applicable to his current situation: “We rejoice in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. And hope does not put us to shame.”
