Healing in aftermath of tragedy

By Trisha Marczak (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published 05:45 p.m., August 9, 2009

When Dennis Brandt got the call Monday that his Erhard home had caught fire, his thoughts veered directly to the safety of his four dogs.

“The hardest thing was not feeling bad about the pets on my way home,” said Brandt, who received the call from his mother shortly after exiting a Fargo store.

When he arrived at his house, he learned three of his four pug pups hadn’t made it out. His fourth dog, Ralph, was the only to survive. Ralph, the man of the pack, spent most of his time patrolling the outdoors and, as a consequence, was outside the home at the time of the fire. A number of cats also failed to survive the fire.

The news for Brandt has been tough to swallow. On Dec. 24 of 2007, his wife, Gayle, passed away. His dogs, as he explained, had become like family.

Daisy, Ivy and Nadia were Brandt’s little ladies.

Brandt affectionately referred to Nadia as the “naughty” one. Ivy, he said, never missed a walk.

“She was my sweetheart,” he said. “She used to follow me in the fields.”

Daisy was the mother of the two and Ralph’s companion.

“They would lay together in the yard,” Brandt said.

Nearly two years after the loss of his wife, Brandt is looking to once again rebuild his life. This time, both emotionally and literally.

Though Brandt did have insurance for his home, he says some things lost in the fire can never be replaced. Photos of he and his wife are now gone forever, along with her wedding ring.

His home, which had been passed down through his wife’s family, sat on a 20 acre plot of land Brandt isn’t willing to let go. But before he begins to rebuild the home and replace his four-wheel drive vehicle that was also lost in the fire, he wants to be sure he’s able to say good-bye to his pups with a proper burial.

While some wonder how it is that Brandt has managed to make it through the past few years of his life, he says for him, there’s really one reason.

“You have to hang on to God instead of cursing Him,” Brandt said.

That’s helped Brandt maintain his ability to laugh and smile.

From here on out, Brandt plans to take one step at a time. The first few will consist of dealing with the insurance companies to assess the total cost of his loss. Considering so much of the loss was emotional, he said it’ll be difficult to put a price tag on his former possessions.

He also plans to re-build on the land on which his house burned down and try to recreate in a way the home he had grown to love.

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