Mary Beth Myers wanted to spend the night of January 8 at her old cottage on the banks of Montecito Creek, just below the bridge at East Valley Road and Parra Grande Lane — but she couldn’t get a fire going in the chimney.
“I loved being there in the rains, feeding the fire and listening to the boulders roll down the creek,” Myers said. “I tried all day to get the fire started with alcohol, dried wood, crumpled paper — but I couldn’t. It was cold, dark, and wet, so I left the cat a couple of bowls of food, and I thought, ‘No way will I stay.’ It was some kind of divine intervention.
“There’s not a trace where my house was … nothing, nothing, nothing.”