It was Christmas Eve, and Jeff and Kristen Kidder were having dinner with their next-door neighbors, just as they had for the past several years. Their son, Jackson, was in town for the holidays. They ate Swedish meatballs and played some games. It was an especially poignant time for the family because Jeff had recently been diagnosed with Mantle cell lymphoma and was undergoing treatments at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester.
"It was a really nice evening," said Kristen.
When they left neighbors Dave and Liz Colwell's home about 10 p.m., however, the Kidders smelled smoke and saw thick, black clouds coming from the direction of their house. Kristen's first thought: "We don't have a chimney."
The house was rapidly engulfed by flames. Inside, the Christmas tree was still aglow with lights. Kristen thought about opening the back door to try to rescue their cat, Scar, but it was too late.
Instead, they watched as firefighters tried to tamp down the flames. The firefighters even tried to save the Christmas presents by passing them out through a window, but most were damaged by fire, smoke or water.
The Kidders lost everything on Christmas Eve — everything except the things that mattered most.
They later learned that they had likely left a candle burning on a table surrounded by greens when they went to visit the Colwells. They now live on their neighbor's third floor while their home is gutted and rebuilt. Soon, the family will go stay in Rochester so that Jeff can start a stem cell transplant that could lengthen his prognosis from 18-24 months to 7-10 years. His cancer is currently in remission.
The Kidders were drawn to the Frogtown neighborhood in St. Paul in 1991, intent on finding a multidwelling house where they could create a Christian community built on helping their socially and economically diverse neighborhood.
