Reprinted with permission from National Catholic Register.
When Peter and Jackie Halpin and their six adult children and some of their spouses showed up at the site of the family home in northern Los Angeles County on Thursday morning, there was almost nothing left.
One of the California wildfires had destroyed it, leaving only the foundation, debris, and singed concrete statues of Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Joseph.
They said a prayer near the statue of Mary — a version of the daily consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Then someone said they should sing something. But what?
Peter ended the discussion with an intonation, setting pitch with four notes going up the scale — “La – la – la – laaaaa.” Everyone in the family knows what that means: Regina Caeli, a 12th-century Latin hymn to Mary that Peter’s mother taught all nine of her children.
The Halpin parents, their six children, and at least four spouses — about a dozen people in all — immediately sang it in harmony.
A family friend shot video of the performance. Someone posted it online, where it has caught the attention of thousands of people.
Andrew Halpin, 36, the fourth of Peter and Jackie’s six children (three boys and three girls), described to the Register on Thursday night how he felt during the family prayer.
“I was thinking, ‘I want to be strong for my folks in this moment’— for my parents. And when we started singing, it felt like we were all being strong for each other,” Halpin said in a telephone interview.
“I already feel so much healing because we were able to be there together as a family, and we were able to bond over this song that means so much to our family,” he said.
The Halpins’ performance of Regina Caeli — a seemingly effortless multipart harmony with volume and various pitches — led to a question for Andrew: How did you do that?
“We’re a very musical family. It was instilled in us from Day One, really,” said Andrew, a composer who has a wife and a toddler daughter.
When they were kids, Andrew and his siblings participated in a choir led by an accomplished choirmaster as part of a Catholic home-schooling group. They all played musical instruments from a young age. Nowadays, they also occasionally perform publicly in a family band, called The Haypenny Pigs.
“After our faith, it’s been one of the most cohesive things about my family,” he said. “There really has never been a time joyful or sad when music doesn’t play a part.”
A home filled with music
The Halpins moved into the house, a Craftsman bungalow in Altadena, in 1988. It was yellow and had three bedrooms and one bathroom. The boys shared one bedroom and the girls another. About two decades ago their parents added a master bedroom with another bathroom, Andrew said.
The moment on Thursday morning was sad, even devastating.
His parents lost their home, which is where all the children grew up. One of his sisters and her daughter lost their home, which was at the rear of the same property.
But it hasn’t shaken their faith, he said.
“We have to give everything to God. And if that means our home at this time, we choose to trust that we’re in the palm of his hand,” Andrew told the Register.
Before they evacuated, Andrew’s parents, who are in their early 60s, managed to save 40 years’ worth of family photo albums and some essential documents. But Jackie’s genealogical collection, including old family photos, is gone. So is almost everything else that was in the house.
“You’re standing on the ashes of your childhood, really of your life,” Andrew said. “But you’re alive.”
Peter is a contractor who runs a concrete business. He lost a work truck in the fire, in addition to his home.
A GoFundMe page for Peter and Jackie Halpin had raised more than $60,000 as of early Friday.
Meanwhile, the family is trying to stress the positive.
“What I would want people to get out of this sadness, out of this tragedy, is that we can wring joy out of it. We can instill love,” Andrew said.
Over the years, the backyard of the family home has seen many parties for family and friends, with live music.
“You’d be hard-pressed to find a party at the old yellow house that didn’t end with a jam session,” he said.
Andrew said his dad decided even before he got married that he wanted to host a lot of parties like that.
“He wanted to create a place where his family and friends could celebrate and forget their worries,” Andrew said.
“This was home for more than just us. And that’s hard to let go of,” he said.
“People know that home as a place of faith, a place of fellowship, community and music,” Andrew said. “I tell you what, when we rebuild, there’s going to be music there again.”
