Face of Malibu Rebuilds is a series from artist Johanna Spinks, featuring Malibu residents and their experiences before, during and after the Woolsey Fire. If you have a fire story you would like to share with The Malibu Times, a person of note or courage, or a person who just needs some cheer around this difficult rebuild time, to be sketched for this series, please contact Spinks at johanna@johannaspinks.com or The Malibu Times Managing Editor Emily Sawicki at emily@malibutimes.com.
Spinks, a professional portrait artist and longtime Malibu resident, is donating her time to this series for the interviews and sketches. Readers may remember her original Face of Malibu portrait series that ran monthly in The Malibu Times for five years. You can see more examples of her portrait work at johannaspinks.com.
Just days after finally moving into her “restorative” rental, after weeks of chaos and heartbreak, pintsize powerhouse Jill Greenberg is now able to take a deep breath, relax her slim shoulders and enjoy the nearby ocean breezes while working on her family’s home rebuild. Jill, a mother of three and a doctor’s wife, also heads The Malibu Learning Center for kids with educational challenges. Resilient Jill says the fire will not stop her important work there, even though the center’s building was destroyed in the fire along with her home.
What is your back story with Malibu? Tell us a little about your life and old home.
I met my husband Tony in our mutual hometown of Detroit, Michigan. After he proposed to me on a cable car in San Francisco, he said: “How about we buy a house in Malibu?” I said: “Great!” Sunset Mesa was our first home, near the Getty. That’s where we raised our three little kids. Then we bought a piece of property in Malibu Park. We would visit it twice a year and have picnics. We called it “Neverland,” as we thought it would never happen. It was a very difficult process to build a house in Malibu at that time. We lived there for 31 years until it burned down. We built an addition, originally for Tony’s parents, that became The Malibu Learning Center.
It was really quite wonderful—a place where kids who are smart but struggle in school could come. I would identify what were the weak underlying processing skills, sometimes with the help of a neuropsychologist if it was a difficult case. My work is extraordinarily satisfying because I have the freedom and opportunity to help kids become better learners. Schools and special education cannot do this work as effectively because they don’t have the resources or mandate.
What was your direct experience of the Woolsey Fire?
My neighbor, who was the mother of one of my students, called me with her heavy French accent and said we had better get out. I said, “What does she know? She’s new here.” (Laughing) There was very little wind, very little smoke. The mindset of packing up your house is a totally schizophrenic one. One part is, “Pack some comfortable clothes because you are coming back.” The other says, “Take your favorite things, just in case—your earrings or your favorite dress.” I didn’t take those favorite things. I didn’t blame the firemen; I didn’t blame Con. Ed. I blamed myself! That went on for a number of weeks. I stood in front of my jewelry box and cherry picked instead of taking the whole thing. Brains are imperfect things and my brain was imperfect that day. You go from a fury of activity, highly charged up, to nothing and alone. You are alone in your car. We went to the Palisades, and then stayed with a dear friend in Woodland Hills for 10 days, which she didn’t expect! We got all our immediate information from our children from Facebook giving us updates every hour almost. At 6 p.m. Saturday my student called and said; “My house is gone and so is yours.” That was after a whole day of wondering. Once that happened, it was such disassociation.
What will your rebuild look like?
The Malibu Learning Center continues to thrive and my new house will have a dedicated space for it. I continue to see students in their homes, at the hotel and in the library and I’ll work with my students as I always have.
My new house is going to be simple and dramatic: a modern farmhouse. Finally, this week, things are moving ahead, but it took a lot of willingness to go through confusion, a lot of information and to be flexible in choosing a path. When you are making big decisions—about your architect, your debris removal, contractor, lawyer—my tendency was to attach myself to the first person that seemed like they would save me, but you have to look at the information and use your resources
What has been the hardest aspect of this experience for you?
A loss of expectation that your life is going to be as you know it.
Living in comfort right now in the rental, it’s a very restorative place, but I am living with the uncertainty of the future building process and worrying it is going to wipe us out financially or be financially impossible, very unsettling to say the least. Everyone who knows me knows I had an amazing collection of folk art [and] special paintings that my daughter did. Every item in my house was highly original and very personal to me. I lost all those things but that is not my greatest pain.
Any shining moments?
The first couple of weeks, my friends and children reaching out to me really helped. You don’t know what kindness is unless you have lost greatly. The thing that surprised me the most is that my baby, Alison (a 33-year-old nurse practitioner) flew here from Buffalo with her boyfriend for the purpose of ‘sifting’ for four days. She ended up staying for six weeks, thinking that I really needed her and she could be of use. Most of the people I connected with are because my daughter found them at the donation center, at cafés, online and at meetings.
What is the biggest challenge ahead for you?
Insurance, getting our fair share. I paid the same insurance company, the same two agents, over 40 years. Eight months before the fire we wanted to make sure we had enough to replace our house, and they assured us in an email we did. This has turned out not to be the case. The biggest challenge is maintaining a positive attitude and solving problems one day at a time. Even if you are confused today, the answer will come.
Any suggestions or advice for other displaced fire people?
I wouldn’t give advice because it is all so individual in terms of each person’s finances and mindset.
If you are looking for a silver lining, No. 1, you learn a lot of stuff. You know what it is like to live in Yemen, Syria or Bosnia. You identify with the people of the world who have lost everything. You have a better understanding of loss.