By Lori EhdeRose and Wes Henriksen have spent the first two weeks of the new year recovering from a fire that destroyed both their livelihood and priceless family heirlooms.The Adrian Hardware store is now nothing but a charred hole in the ground after the historic dowtown building crumbled in a dramatic blaze on Dec. 26.The Henriksens owned that business for 13 years and are now piecing together options for what to do next."Some days are good, and some days are not so good," Rose said Tuesday when asked how they’re holding up. "We’ve always lived one day at a time, and that’s what we’re doing now."She said Monday was a particularly difficult day because the last of the rubble was cleaned up and hauled away."It’s mostly ashes, but every once in a while you’d see something you recognized," Rose said. "That was tough."Even more difficult is knowing their personal belongings are gone."When we moved into a smaller home, we stored things up there," she said, "… my mother’s silverware, my wedding dress, our children’s pictures … so it’s not just the business. It’s been real trying for me."She said she’s grateful no one was hurt the day the building burned."We had lots of chemicals and flammable items in there," she said. "The firemen talked about paint cans shooting out like torpedoes."She also said a set of stairs on the exterior building wall fell moments before firemen contemplated using them."We’re so lucky no one got hurt," she said, "not just the firemen, but the people standing nearby when the walls crumbled."Rose said she’s appreciated community support. "People have been so helpful in doing what they can," she said. "It just makes our days so much better to get through."For example, local Adrian Elevator owners have offered temporary office space for the Henriksens while they contemplate whether or not to rebuild."They’ve been so kind to let us use this space," Rose said.A bank in Heron Lake called to say it had shelving units available, and Wes drove to get them Tuesday. Merchandise will be for sale at the elevator.Customers have also been helping the Henriksens piece together a destroyed computer database."We had it backed up and put into a fire-proof file cabinet, but it melted," Rose said. She said it was fortunate that only a few months of business were lost, because she’d recently purchased a new computer, and all the information was still retrievable from the old one that she had at her house."If customers have receipts or invoices for September, October and November to share with us, that would be very helpful in helping me rebuild my database," Rose said.Wes has continued working with the electrical and plumbing contracting part of the business, but Rose said she and employees Jeri Kruger and Norma Carlsberg have felt displaced."We’ve lost a very, very big part of our lives," Rose said Tuesday. "It’s like we’re homeless, because we spent more time there than we did at home."Two of Adrian Hardware’s phone lines ring in at the elevator. Customers with questions can call 483-2152 or 483-2664 for service.
