An awful story placed in my Facebook feed (thanks to Karen Brown) about Virgin Chairman Richard Branson’s Necker Island House Fire, but a story made better by the outpouring of support, the fact that all 20 people in the house survived, and Kate Winslet. On his blog, Mr. Branson has two posts, several photos, and this YouTube video, below.
Of Kate Winslet, Branson blogs:
We had a tropical storm with winds up to 90mph. A big lightning storm came around 4am and hit the house. My son Sam and nephew Jack rushed to the house and helped get everyone out and many thanks to Kate Winslet for helping to carry my 90 year old mum out of the main house to safety – she was wondering when a Director was going to shout CUT!
Branson reports that he intends to rebuild the house and that everyone who’s employed there will remain with work.
The second blog post, called Necker Island Aftermath, has words that will just bring you to tears. For example:
There were a few tears – the shock finally hit my son Sam in the middle of the night when he realised what could have happened – in the adrenaline of rushing to the house to get everyone out he’d forgotten what he’d felt when waking up to see 200ft high flames coming from the house and no one moving. At 3 o’clock this morning the memory of the dread he felt – fearing that no one had woken up – came flooding back.
But there were also lots of giggles, not least when I tried to get some sympathy for the fact that I’d jumped out of bed naked and rushed to the Great House in pitch darkness and hurricane force winds and ran straight in to a cactus bush – the sympathy was not forthcoming for my injuries!
It doesn’t matter how much money a person has. What matters are friends, spirit, and life itself.
Stay tuned.