Wildfires

Mementos from Mass. give Marshfield native hope as wildfires destroy LA home

Tom Nicholson, a Los Angeles actor from Marshfield, Massachusetts, says the survival of his high school rings and a Fenway Park brick he used in his wedding proposal helped him "find the light in the darkness"

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Tom Nicholson lost almost all of his possessions, but a few mementos from Massachusetts he was able to save from the ashes are giving him hope, he says.

A Los Angeles actor from Marshfield is finding comfort in his Massachusetts roots after losing his house in the deadly wildfires.

"I heard my neighbor screaming my name," said Tom Nicholson. "I ran out with whatever I had in my hands, dumped it in my car, and at that point, it had turned into, like, night outside of the house."

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Nicholson, who was living in the Pacific Palisades, said he had only minutes to evacuate.

"It was so dark. All I could see was the lights on the fire truck in front of me, and I was just following that. I couldn't see what was on the road, it was very scary. All you could see is these balls of embers — 80mph — flying past you, hitting the car."

Sitting at a Boston sports bar in Santa Monica, Nicholson watched his house go up in flames from his Ring camera.

He eventually returned to his neighborhood, finding it leveled.

Tom Nicholson

"The whole city is gone," Nicholson said. "The grocery store is gone. The post office is gone. The restaurants are gone. Everything is gone, it's not just a bunch of rich people's homes."

But while almost all of his possessions have been lost, a few small mementos from Massachusetts, saved from the rubble, are now giving him hope.

"We sifted through the rubble, and I actually was able to get these Super Bowl rings. '95 and '96," Nicholson explained, holding up two rings from his big wins while on the Marshfield High School football team.

The rings, while charred, were still intact.

Tom Nicholson

"Where can I find the light in the darkness here? It was like finding these rings that brought me back to Marshfield High, and the Super Bowls that we had won playing football," he said.

Nicholson also discovered a brick from Fenway Park, with the words, "Meredith, will you marry me?" inscribed on the front. The brick, now in two, was initially from Gate B at the ballpark.

"This is how I proposed to Meredith with our family during a tour of Fenway Park, the day before Thanksgiving," he said. "If it wasn't for the Red Sox, we wouldn't have met."

Tom Nicholson

Now, as his late father would want, Nicholson looks for the positives.

While a house can be rebuilt anywhere, a home will always be where the heart is.

"Feeling the love from 3,000 miles away has really made this process easier," he said. "Or, as easy as it can be."

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