Altadena couple mourns loss of family home, a shrine to their late son
Susan Toler Carr and her husband, Darrell, had to see for themselves.
Susan Toler Carr and her husband, Darrell, had to see for themselves. They had gotten the devastating news from a neighbor that their home of 25 years had burned down in the fires that have ravaged the Los Angeles area since last week.
The couple fled their neighborhood in Altadena last Tuesday night for a friend’s guest house in Toluca Lake. The next day, they bypassed police roadblocks by maneuvering through a back street, passing a burning elementary school, downed power lines and trees and smoldering debris.
When they pulled up to what had been their home, most of it was gone. A part of their Spanish-style house built in 1924 was still on fire. Some of the structure stood, including a wrought iron gate commemorating the life of their son, Justin, who died in 2013 at 16 during swimming practice from idiopathic hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, an undetected heart ailment.
The profound grief the couple experienced nearly 12 years ago suddenly resurfaced.
“It was like losing Justin all over again because that house was where he grew up and we kept it as a shrine to Justin,” Susan Toler Carr said. “It was a family home where Justin’s presence was everywhere. There’s nothing like the pain of losing him. But our home was an extension of Justin.”
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