Life put in perspective after John Curley’s cabin burns down

John Curley’s cabin in Cle Elem recently burned down. On the John Curley & Shari Elliker Show, he spoke about how the burning of the cabin and in a way, the death of his friend Dori Monson, provides perspective on the important things in life.

“I jumped in the car. I raced over there, the flames must be 15-30 feet in the air, and this beautiful little log cabin is going away. And finally, which seemed to take a long time — they squirt it and stuff, but they were hitting with the hose and the foam and everything,” John said.

John Curley describes his trek to the outhouse in 4 feet of snow

This tragedy comes on the heels of another, the passing of John’s friend and fellow KIRO Newsradio host Dori Monson.

“I just stood there and watched it,” John said. “[It’s] the oddest thing about how life works. I’m thinking about Dori in the hospital and his condition. This really strange kind of calm falls over me, and like, it’s irrelevant. The material things are irrelevant.

“The cabin, I love it, and it was amazing for me to have that [in] my life. I just stood there, and people came over and hugged me.”

Shari shared her condolences on the loss of the cabin and the death of Dori but tried to find a silver lining.

“Yeah, and it’s strange, such a loss. I mean, that cabin meant so much to you, and I think the impact of it was different because you were dealing with the impact of Dori, obviously.” Shari said. “You were dealing with a true life and death situation versus one that you could kind of put things into perspective. As hard as it will be to replace the cabin, it’s replaceable. Life isn’t.”

In the end, John was able to get what he needed out of the cabin.

“We went back over there and stood there. We took out one pickup truck load of stuff, we could save a couple of little odds and ends that were in there, and the rest of it all burned,” John said. “But I stood there in front of the cabin, and I had my arms outstretched, and I basically said goodbye to it.”

You can listen to the full story of John’s cabin here:

Listen to John Curley and Shari Elliker weekday afternoons from 3 – 7 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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