At devastated mobile home park, couple return to find home still standing

Marion Thornton, 89, and her husband, Austin, 91, are one of the original 15 families who moved into Oakridge Mobile Home Park 29 years ago.

Their mobile home is one of the roughly 140 that remained standing after the Sayre fire swept into the Sylmar park and wiped out most of its 600 mobile homes.

The couple waited nearly seven hours Monday, along with hundreds of others at Sylmar High School, for a shuttle into the park about two miles away so they could look at their home.

She knew the home was still standing because her neighbors told her so, but she wanted to see it for herself after leaving shortly before midnight Friday.

About 3 p.m., she finally got her chance.

“It’s kind of grotesque, very grotesque. It’s very awful,” Thornton said. “Anything I could say to you, it would be awful. When I drove to this park, I didn’t know I was there. . . . There’s not a grass, no lawn, nothing.”

Her home in the middle of the park was untouched by fire.

“It looked beautiful, just like I left it, except for a few things -- my bed wasn’t made,” she said with a laugh. “That was a shame,” she joked. “Everything was exactly like I left it. I can’t believe it.”

The bus ride to the park was difficult.

“It took my breath away, a lot,” she said. “I’m a pretty old lady, but I’ve got a good, strong heart right now because I’m going to live through this for a while. I didn’t feel like I was back home yet; I don’t think I’m home yet.”

As she toured the community with her husband and daughter-in-law, she stopped in front of a neighbor’s home that was destroyed.

“They’re crying about it, and it’s very hard,” Thornton said. “I want to cry too, but I don’t know how to cry anymore. I feel like I’ve lost my life, you know? But we’re going to go on with life.”

Abdollah is a Times staff writer.

tami.abdollah@latimes.com