Despite the trio’s appreciation of their recently regained privacy, their housing journey wouldn’t end up concluding there. Over the course of roughly four months, the Hawthorne townhouse’s lease expired, leaving the family of three returning to their extended-stay hotel residence.

Along with Isis, Charis, and Sarah’s reentry into the Residence Inn Marriott came the sun’s scorching summer rays. At this point, the feverous breath of summer had arrived just in time, as now the family had access to a swimming pool.

Throughout the torrid summer months, when Isis and her friends had just been relinquished from their last leg of middle school, it was time to anticipate a hopefully soon move-in date for their new house, which was in the process of being rebuilt.

While Charis and Sarah discussed blueprints with their contractors and public adjuster, Warren Toles, Isis enjoyed the carefree school vacation of every incoming freshman. She attended the Meadowlands Fair in early July, birthday parties in early August, and multiple visits with friends across the street to SkyZone Allendale (a trampoline jumping arena) all throughout.

One of Isis’s most memorable experiences comes from a SkyZone trip with friends a few days after school let out for summer vacation. The girls participated in an hour jump session, with a break for Icees halfway through, of course. They then walked back to the Greene’s hotel room, where they were greeted with pizza that Charis had ordered, and complimentary s’more making by the pool.

Isis may have taken away cheerful memories from summer ‘16, but that didn’t mean that the Greene’s situation was any different. Though Sarah and Charis remained optimistic about their chances of moving into their rebuilt home as the June, July, and August pages were soon ripped from their calendar, they noted that the construction was moving rather slowly, leaving room for the personal trait of patience to be acquired by all.

At last, the Greene’s entered upon the final days of August, which meant that September, and ultimately the beginning of Isis’s entrance into high school, was nearing. Little by little, the family received updates of the construction status, boosting their morales by each syllable spoken.

While Glen Rock High School began administering class schedules for the 2016-2017 school year, the Greene’s commenced their gradual move-in and final farewell from the Residence Inn- induced by the packing of their few belongings left from the fire and those acquired post. Due to the ruddy flames that plagued and consumed their scorched home for hours on end, toxic chemicals remained inside after it was extinguished, which discouraged souvenirs.

Each family member found themselves preoccupied by a hankering for their newly prevalent dream home that seemed unable to be appeased or negotiated with. This begun with the oversight of the unspoiled furniture that their insurance company provided. Shortly after this, it came time to choose new paint colors for the walls, look through dozens of samples, and appoint one paint chip supreme. For Isis, fully fresh furniture was supplied to her bedroom, along with a number of more surface changes.  The cosmetic alteration that appealed to Isis the most came in the form of purple paint, spread evenly and deeply across her four bedroom walls, framed by alabaster crown molding.

After almost two years of anticipation and patience, the Greene family returned to their beloved home. The reconstruction of the little white house, whose bones had withstood the barbaric flames, was altered by paint jobs and the addition of a wooden deck.

Isis stared at the vacant shell that was once recognizable as her bedroom. The remnants of architecture were a canvas, open to Isis’s new and modern interpretation.

Considering that the young teenager’s lamp was the culprit of the fire, Isis’s bedroom was impacted the worst of them all, leaving her with nothing but the pajamas she wore while escaping. The smoke and flames had chased her out so quickly that she departed the original front door for the final time with not even her cell phone or birthday money in tow.

Despite past desires for a dream home, the family seemed to experience an everlasting sensation of newfound appreciation and longing for the original.

“Even though it’s a new house, we still miss our old house. It’s weird because you always think ‘Oh, it would be great to have a new house,’ but it’s odd because we don’t seem to appreciate our new house as much as we did our old,” Charis said. “It’s one of those things where you always think the grass is greener on the other side until yours is gone and you have something new, and it’s like ‘Well, this house is nice but we liked the other one better.’”

There was no mistaking that this was not an ideal situation for the family. As anyone would, the three treasured the memories that the initial house conjured for them. Regardless, the trio lovingly awaited the good times that the reconstructed home was sure to bear forthcoming.

Meanwhile, it didn’t hurt to relish in the fresh splendors that came with the house’s return. For one, the group retained their privacy. Another came in the addition of a deck for the backyard, where the group foresaw a profusion of summer memories for years to come. A third came in the general feeling of being back at home, back where they belonged. Most of all, the group was just keen on the fact that the white house on Dean Street was home to them again.

Soon enough, it was time for yet another page in the calendar to be tossed aside. September had arrived and was ripe in its second or third week when the three underwent a wild schedule change. It was time again for Isis to return to school, where she would become a freshman at Glen Rock High School. The remainder of the family devoted their hours outside of work to continuing on with the move-in process, which was progressing at its own steady pace.

With the summer months under their belts, the family’s hotel and townhouse stays were the farthest things from their minds, next to, of course, the fire itself. Though the incident had significantly impacted the trio’s lives, the Greene’s remained emotionally stalwart.

It would be an understatement to say that the fire was very draining for the family. However, all three held their heads high and kept moving on. For them, lingering on the tragic idea that they lost everything they owned was absolutely not an option. Feeling sorry for themselves and not making the most of their situation would allow their emotions to be infiltrated by despair, and that was not in the least what they had planned.

“It was just one of those things where you have to deal with things when they happen. You can’t fold, you can’t give up, you have to keep moving, and I just think that we didn’t really think about it a lot, which might sound kind of weird,” Charis said. “I think the way that Isis and I cope with things is to put them out of our minds, so we weren’t really focused on it.”

After Isis’s new school year had begun and summer was long gone, the Greene’s occupied themselves with the lives they led prior to their experiences throughout their displacement – this time, with a lesson learned.

This was the philosophy of family: the aspect of how each family member just expected their family, home, and belongings to last until they chose to surrender them voluntarily. The fire opened up the wholly fresh realization that that philosophy is false, and gave an additional familial appreciation to each Charis, Sarah, and Isis.

Somehow, the flames introduced the unimportance of belongings.

Each family member’s eyes were opened to not “what,” but “who” they truly care about. This is because when the orange light and enveloping vapor were cast down upon them, their treasured belongings suddenly didn’t matter any more.

“I was always worried about my makeup, and my Uggs, and my phone, because it’s stuff that we take a lot of value and a lot of pride in,” Isis said. “It showed me that that doesn’t matter as much as I thought it did, because in the heat of the moment when it was all burning, that was the last thing I thought about.”