BLACK FOREST — The dirty zip-close bag found buried beneath the rubble of Janet Mustian’s burned house provided a glimmer of hope amid the heartache.
Inside the plastic bag was a red-zippered Bible given to Mustian by her parents when she was a child.
After her house was destroyed in the Black Forest fire in June, Mustian asked an excavating crew to keep an eye out for the Bible, but she didn’t expect to ever lay eyes on it again.
But sure enough, the tattered book — the top right-hand corner nearly gone and the Old Testament the only readable part — revealed itself under dirt Aug. 13.
“They found it while I was out there,” Mustian said. “It was pretty emotional.”
Mustian cried when one of the workers handed it to her, and she had to leave the site. Mustian and her husband had buried the Bible before the foundation was poured for their house in 2004.
The Mustians were renting out their home when the fire hit, so they did not lose any of their possessions.
Mustian and her husband plan to rebuild on the same site in Black Forest and move in. The Bible will be preserved and placed in a shadow box in their new home.
