“You try to get them in their first trimester and then work with them to delivery day, and then we also work with the babies to make sure that they reach their milestones,” Jackson said.
She described the scale of destruction as unimaginable.“It’s so much more than just the homes — it’s an entire town wiped off the map,” she said. “Many businesses in Palisades were family-owned. There are people who not only lost their homes but also their businesses and livelihoods.”
Finding safe shelter has been another challenge.“We’ve had to move three times due to evacuations, but we’ve settled at a friend’s house in Santa Monica,” Rivers said. “They’ve been kind enough to take us in, along with another family we’re friends with.”Rivers copes with these challenges through her self-proclaimed “dark sense of humor” and her knack for making people laugh. She also finds solace in supporting others who are struggling, which helps to ease her own burdens.
“Checking in and comforting the people in my world that are affected by this allows me to not deal with my home stuff right now. I cried once for five minutes and then again for like 20 and don’t have time to do that. I am my parents’ daughter.”Despite losing most of her belongings, Rivers is adamant about prioritizing those in greater need.
“People are donating, and stores are offering huge discounts. I see so many of my friends from the Palisades wanting to get a discount somewhere. And I keep trying to say to them, these are not meant for you. You can buy another pair of freaking jeans at Neiman Marcus just like you always did. Let the people who really need it have the first shot at it.”
Among the charitable donations, one stood out to Rivers.; resident Yi-Po Lee died in the fire.
Morton chronicled the camp’s residents in her series “Fragile Dwelling.”“These impoverished habitats are as diverse as the people who build them, and they bear witness to the profound human need to create a sense of place, no matter how extreme one’s circumstances,” she wrote.
In one painting, a young boy is wearing some snazzy red slippers and a blue romper. He’s got a big book in one hand and an even bigger hat in the other. You get the impression he’s stopped only momentarily before running off to play in his room.“Portrait of Frederick A. Gale” was painted by Ammi Phillips in 1815 and is one museum director Jason Busch’s favorite pieces in the collection. It stands out, he said “because it’s representative of an art genre that, up till then, had been the purview of society’s upper crust.