If someone you love set fire to your world could you forgive them?

At the age of only four, Nikki Messick’s father set her childhood home to flames. The fighting between her parents and the upcoming divorce proves to be to much for her father to handle. The flames become his way of trying to rid his life of bad memories tied to the house. He yearns to make it all go away.

With Nikki at school and her mother at work, he sets the fire. The tragedy left the family with no home and a million questions. Nikki is left as a four-year-old bundle of confusion. Her trust toward others now cracking, but from the ashes grew a new found skill of forgiveness.

She learns to forgive her father and continue to love him. After the fire, Nikki’s mom devotes giving Nikki and her sister as much family time as possible in order to help cope. She fills two weeks with happy memories for Nikki and her sister.

Eventually the family returns to the ashes of their home that was once full of life. Nikki and her family searches the ruins to see what they can salvage. Within the ash, Nikki finds one of her favorite toys: a Littlest Pet Shop. The morning of the day of the fire young Nikki places the Littlest Pet Shop in a small chest that in turn ended up preserving the toy.

“I saved it!”

Nikki said as she reflects on the ruins. Saving the toy is now one of her strongest memories surrounding the house.

Nikki still thinks about the house often although its been years since the fire. The bond with her father will never be  the same, but she still loves him nonetheless and can now focus on forgiveness.