The Brief

The church looked closed from the outside, but through the doors, past the pews and down a long hallway, a quiet triumph was playing out this week in Altadena.

Felisa Wright was re-opening her childcare business after nearly 10 long months of struggle. Like so many others, she faced trial after trial after the Eaton Fire in January destroyed her home, where she also ran her business.

But you wouldn't have known it Wednesday morning, when she finally opened her doors again in a new location: Metropolitan Baptist Church on Fair Oaks Avenue.

With a baby on her hip and light peeking through the window blinds, Wright couldn't stop smiling.

"I'm so glad that I'm back at what I love to do," she said. "I'm just overwhelmed with joy."

Joy has been hard to come by in Altadena since the fire. Vacant lots are scattered across the once-idyllic community. Many still are struggling to rebuild or return.

The new childcare center felt far away from that world of troubles on its first day open. Music played softly as two children built towers of blocks and crawled around.

Seated at a children's table, baby still in hand, Wright described what it took to get here.

Before the fires, she had been living in a home with a backhouse that she rented and shared with her daughters and grandchildren. They had to split up after the fires to find housing, and even then, it took until August for her to find a permanent home.

By some miracle, that new place is in Altadena.

Before that, she spent more than a half-year staying at hotels, Airbnbs and with family members. In that time, her youngest daughter, Jai, graduated from Pasadena High School. On Wednesday, Jai was helping her mom at the daycare, playing with the kids.

"It was very stressful," Jai said. "I was really depressed and just sad. I really didn't want to keep going, but I had a goal. I had to get up out of high school. I had to make my mom proud."

While her daughter finished school, Felisa Wright was caught up in the bureaucratic nightmare that was a central facet of recovery for many fire survivors. She said she still needs to appeal to receive the rest of her unemployment benefits, which ran out over the summer.

In the end, Wright said it wasn't the federal or state agencies that allowed her to re-open. Instead, community grants gave her the support to buy new supplies and outfit a room in her church so it could get licensed.

Now that she's open for business, it's on to the next challenge: getting enrollment up. Right now, she's got seven kids, and she's looking for more.

After that? She wants to open her own space entirely. When she shares that dream, she flashes a big smile.

It'll be called the "Wright Choice" Child Care Center.