Viral California grandmother shares words of wisdom after losing everything in wildfire
Almost 90-year-old grandmother of four children in Altadena, California garnered millions of views on social media after her granddaughter shared her words of wisdom after losing everything in the devastating California wildfires.
For Ruth Judkins, who turns 90 next month, the devastation of the wildfires in Southern California was a time to recalibrate and simplify her life.
“Know what’s important in your life and hopefully you’ll have the strength, energy and faith to go on and rebuild your life,” Judkins told Fox News Digital. “You might want to change that. You might want to simplify at whatever age you are.”
“But it’s important to know what’s important and live by what you believe in,” she said.
Her simple words of wisdom resonated on social media, where she is granddaughter’s video on Instagram it has gathered more than 3 million views and thousands of comments.
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Judkins’ longtime home in Altadena was one of many thousands destroyed in the horrific wildfires.
“My street has 12 family houses. Six of them are left. Six burned down,” she said.
The horror struck after Judkins spent a typical day spending time with her daughter and granddaughter and catching up on reading in her home where she lives alone.
“I heard all the noise. The wind was, I would say, 70 to 80 mph at the time,” she said. “You could hear it even though I have double-glazed windows, it was horrible,” she said. “At last I went out and looked, and I saw that the fire was to my east.”
For many decades Southern California resident has lived through other devastating wildfires, sharing that they usually start in the mountains instead of canyons.
“But this started at our latitude. So it was a new ball game,” she said. “This never happened. It was right to my east and I guess the wind made it move fast.
Ruth Judkins home in Altadena, California after the Eaton fire. Judkins has lived there for 48 years and hopes to rebuild. (GoFundMe)
A few moments after the recording a rapidly growing flameJudkins received a warning that it was time to evacuate.”
“I got a really loud alert on my phone that said ‘Get out,'” she said. “I grabbed what I thought was essential, packed the car and left.”
“I was so confident [that the fire] should be solved,” she said. “I would grab a wall of irreplaceable photos. That’s all I’d grab. Maybe my recipe box too.”
Ruth Judkins, who will turn 90 next month, said she is simplifying her affiliation after losing everything after the Eaton fires swept through Altadena, California. (Fox News Digital)
Judkins shared that most things in life are replaceable, saying that at her age, “things don’t need to.”
“Most things are replaceable, you know, and a lot of things you don’t really need when you’ve spent 48 years in the house, like I have.
The nearly 90-year-old said she was raised in the 1950s and was taught that “you need money to survive, but money doesn’t make you happy.”
“I used to have three sets of dinnerware, but I only need one set of 12 for my family and a set of four for every day,” she said. “That’s enough. It’s the same with the clothes.”
A satellite image shows smoke covering homes after devastating wildfires in Altadena, California on January 8, 2025. (Maxar Technologies/Handout via Reuters)
Moving forward, Judkins looks to the future where he hopes to rebuild his home, commenting that he hopes to build it sustainably.
“I know it will take some time to restore the house, but I’m very anxious to do it. At my age, I don’t have that many years left in that house,” she said. “I just saved for five years to get it fully electric kitchen and everything was perfect. I didn’t even mind washing the dishes because there was room for everything! It was simply the best kitchen!”
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“And I want to remodel the house. Same footprint. I don’t want anything different except I want a sustainable house with electric heat and an electric water heater.”
A house burns as strong winds fuel devastating wildfires in the Los Angeles area prompting people to evacuate, in the Eaton fire in Altadena, California, US, January 8, 2025. (REUTERS/David Swanson)
Her daughter Carolina started a fundraiser for Judkins after her mother lost everything in a fire.
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“When the fire broke out, my grandmother only had minutes to evacuate and was only able to grab her dog, leaving everything else behind,” Caroline wrote in a GoFundMe post. “She also lost her rental properties, which were her primary source of income at the age of 89. That left her with no safety net.”
