We’ll be organizing resources for decades, following Eaton

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Andrew Seace, 22, of San Francisco visits his childhood home on Allen Avenue in Altadena on Jan. 9 after the Eaton fire destroyed the home. Seace said his parents just finished a two-year remodel on the home. Sarah Reingewirtz — Staff photographer

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It took an elected, Supervisor Kathryn Barger, to remind me last Friday morning that it was exactly one month since the day that will change the lives of Altadenans and Pasadenans forever — the day of the Eaton fire.

There is no Altadena, as such, though there will be one again in some far future.

And Pasadena is forever on watch that the power of a firestorm in the mountains isn’t so far from it, either — not in a future that will see other weird, wicked, wintertime Santa Anas that can blow a white-hot ember for miles.

But a month it had been since Jan. 7, and the supervisor then sent over an eminently practical, action-oriented op-ed about the work ahead: “My promise to rebuild goes hand in hand with my launch of the Altadena Recovery Commission this week — a focused and pragmatic effort to organize, resource and support the long-term recovery of our beloved Altadena.”

We’ll be organizing our resources for some time now. Trying to catch my breath, here are some of the fire-related, and not fire-related, items crossing my desk:

• South Lake realtor Rosey Bell, who’s been celebrating area firefighters for decades with fun barbecues at La Casita del Arroyo, has at least two dear friends who lost lifetime houses near Noyes School in Altadena, and got to thinking: Deep in sorrow and in the paperwork of recovery, they can’t wear those sweatpants they evacuated in forever, and it’s not like they have a lot of time for clothes shopping. So she’s been collecting new and “lightly used” clothing for weeks now and is throwing a bash, themed “We’re Better Together,” to unite people who’ve lost their wardrobes with some glad rags. It’s this Sunday, Feb. 16 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m at El Portal, 695 E. Green St., Pasadena. Antojitos. Margaritas. Community. RSVP roseybell@rocketmail.com

• Today, Feb. 12, 2025 is the 100th birthday of Maggi Cherniss, who, among many, many other things, was a rock-star personality to readers of the Pasadena Star-News for the many decades that her late husband, Chuck Cherniss, was a columnist for the newspaper. That’s because, whether she liked it or not — mostly, she was OK with it — Wife Maggi was a character in Chuck’s daily columns, which were probably the best-read feature in what was a must-read paper for the entire West San Gabriel Valley. She was a businesswoman of high talent. She knew everyone. She figured out plenty for Chuck to do in their 1880s Sylvanus Marston house on South Madison Avenue. It was a second marriage for both, with a blended family of four children here and around the country, and we readers got to know them all in print. When I came to work at the paper I finally got to meet the real Maggi, and a more Aquarian person you have never met: “Aquarians value their freedom and need time alone to think and plan. They don’t like being told what to do. They view challenges to their independence as attempts to control them.” Before meeting Maggi, I hadn’t known those traits. I didn’t know the first thing about astrology. In fact, it was meeting her that made me see there was something to the personality analysis. The first time I introduced her to my young daughter, Julia, in the early ‘90s, Maggi observed, listened. Then she looked Julia in the eyes: “Ah, I see you are an Aquarian, too, young lady.” Bingo: birthday Jan. 28. It was always a great pleasure working with Maggi on the Star-News Tournament of Toys, the big, happy charity she founded with Chuck, which used to feature a helicopter-delivered Santa arriving to ride in a parade from City Hall. We’d gather every fall in Maggi’s Victoria-era living room to plan the holiday events for the ToT. Always a good ham. Always warming whiskey. The happiest of birthdays, Maggi. I’m so glad to celebrate your centenary.

• I was really sorry to see in the obits that Jack French, for almost two decades the CEO of the Pasadena Tournament of Roses, died late last month at his home in Palm Springs, aged 86. Star-News ad man and head of the local Red Cross before leading the Tournament, Jack was a Pasadena leader of the old school: dedicated, traditionalist, buttoned-down, hard-working. After reporting on him in that complex job for years, when I got to help a master-organizer run something, too — I was asked to join his committee that put on the Rose Bowl fireworks every year, since the Star-News was a major sponsor — it made me feel as if I’d made it in this town. RIP.

Write the public editor at lwilson@scng.com.