mother-in-law

Gutierrez-Ochoa allegedly kidnapped two members of the Mexican Navy around November 2021 in an attempt to secure the release of his mother-in-law, El Mencho’s wife, who had been arrested by Mexican authorities.

Still, amid the cataclysm, my mother-in-law and her neighbors tell stories of a community coming together — of lost pets evacuated as the flames were bearing down, of people checking to see that others had fled before they did, of homes saved by firefighters and others who had to stay behind.

Don’t get me wrong: Plenty of people lost everything in this fire, certainly more than my mother-in-law did.

A brother-in-law texted: There was a fire near our mother-in-law’s home.

The Santa Anas blew hard that morning, and my mother-in-law’s land sat perilously downwind, maybe half a mile from where the fire started.