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Yet they managed to break a downstairs window, crawl out on a narrow ledge, with only flames lighting their way, and still maintain their balance long enough to avoid falling 10 feet onto a concrete slab below.
The Greendeers had returned home about 11 p.m. March 7 after attending a meeting in Viroqua. They both commented on the sheer stillness of the brisk night and the glisten of the stars above. Little did they know that the darkness of the night would soon be filled with an orange glow and stifling dense smoke.
With bedrooms on different floors of the house, the harsh winter forced them to sleep near a a wood stove in the living room to stay warm.
They opened up a futon, piled on blankets and topped everything off with a fur coat Taryn received from her grandmother, a family memento now in ashes along with family photos and the memorabilia of her famous parents.
Taryn’s father, Tyrone Power, is best known to TV buffs and moviegoers as Zorro, and her mother, Linda Christian, was the first James Bond girl in the 1954 movie “Casino Royale.”
An actress herself, Taryn grew up in Hollywood but left the glitz of Tinseltown behind in search of a simpler life. She left California, fell in love, remarried and moved to Wisconsin 14 years ago.
“People ask me why Wisconsin, and I tell them that since I was 9 years old and saw a picture of a Norwegian Stabbur house, I’ve imagined living in the country. We found property in Wisconsin and moved here. The rest is history, we love it here,” Greendeer said from the motel room where she and her daughter are staying until they figure out where life takes them next.
Taryn says they’ve been overwhelmed by community support, and people wishing to help the Greendeers get back on their feet can drop donations off at the Bethel Butikk in Westby in Taryn and Stella’s name.
“Everything starts with a dream, and mine is that no one has to suffer through this type of devastation, but that if they do I hope they live in an area where community support is as wonderful as it is here,” Taryn said.
The cause of the fire is believed be be electrical, although the fire remains under investigation.
Dorothy Jasperson is editor of the Westby Times.
