Ask anyone in Denare Beach and they’ll tell you Rhonda Werbicki’s home was always the go-to Halloween house in the northern Saskatchewan village.
“We won't be here for Halloween this year, and that's killing me,” Werbicki said during a recent visit to Denare Beach. “I'm a huge decorator. I go all-out for Halloween.”
On June 2, wildfire destroyed Werbicki’s family home and more than 200 other residences in the remote lakeside community in northeast Saskatchewan, including 24 on the adjacent Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation reserve.
Werbicki currently lives with family about 750 kilometres away in Gimli, Man., but spent a couple of weeks in Denare Beach with her husband, who stayed behind to lead the massive effort to clear residential lots of debris.
“Every part of my life is 100 per cent different right now,” Werbecki said, lamenting the lack of routine, like meeting her girlfriends for coffee.
Rhonda and Joey Werbicki plan to rebuild their Denare Beach home that was destroyed by wildfire this summer. Rhonda is living with family in Gimli, Man., while Joey leads the cleanup effort in Denare Beach. (Jeremy Warren/CBC)
Talking about normal things — Halloween, the weather, the Toronto Blue Jays hea
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