FORT SMITH — It was 2 a.m. March 26, and Kris and Myndi Keyton and their four sons had just driven 714 miles, returning home to Fort Smith from a spring break trip to Destin, Fla.
“All we wanted to do was sleep,” she said.
Instead, as Kris Keyton approached the door to their home, he heard breaking glass, saw flames and called 911. By the time the fire department left the premises eight hours later, the house had been destroyed. According to the Southwest Times Record, the home’s location at the edge of every fire district contributed to the total loss.
Myndi Keyton, a second-grade teacher at Christ the King School since 2000, describes herself as “an optimistic person by nature,” but the problems they faced were enormous. Even her sons’ school uniforms and jackets had been destroyed, and they were all due back in school March 28.
Their parish and schools were quick responders. The Keytons rented a home from friends, and teachers brought meals for more than two weeks.
Trinity Junior High School held a Mass for 14-year-old Skip and the family and took up a collection to give him a gift card to replace some of what he’d lost. Friends gave him a uniform and a coat.
Classmates at Christ the King School gave 10-year-old Sam and 5-year-old Levi baskets with toys and video games. Families brought them uniforms and jackets. Levi’s Christ the King baseball team bought him cleats, a bat and glove. Kindergarten mothers put together a basket of cleaning supplies.
Trinity and Christ the King schools gave Skip, Sam and Levi yearbooks, and Southside High School gave oldest son, 20-year-old Jacob, now studying at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, a set of yearbooks.
“Altogether the school collected $2,000 for gift certificates,” Pat Barber, Christ the King secretary, said. “Because they lost everything, we decided that they could use the gift certificates to buy what they needed.”
Keyton was especially touched by a letter shown to her by a student’s mother. The little girl lost her tooth and wrote a letter to the tooth fairy asking for $20 to bring to her teacher who had lost her home in a fire.
“I still get teary-eyed every time I think of it,” Keyton said.
She and her husband cried a little every night, overwhelmed by the kindness of their parish and school families. Every day brought new blessings to the family.
“I think when you feel like God is watching out for you, you know everything will be OK,” Keyton said. “I have thought a lot about Psalm 23. The school and church family have been like our rod and staff and have showered us with kindness, love, prayer and kind deeds and even in the face of something so devastating we appreciate that God has been present in so many people. I’m kind of in awe of it.”
Myndi Keyton, after taking a week off to meet with insurance adjusters and fire marshals and dig through the rubble to see if she could salvage any family pictures or mementos, is back teaching second grade. The family has been told they should plan on staying in the rented house for at least a year while their home is rebuilt.
“I try to find the positive in things. I’m grateful my children weren’t in the house,” Keyton said. “We’ve been very fortunate. It could have been so much worse.”
