Fires in Los Angeles: Family dedicates song to the Virgin over remains of razed house

When Peter and Jackie Halpin and their six adult children and some of their spouses showed up at the scene of the family home in northern Los Angeles County on Thursday morning, almost nothing remained.

One of the California wildfires destroyed it, leaving only the foundation, rubble, and burned concrete statues of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Saint Joseph.

They said a prayer next to 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 conversation with an intonation, setting the tone with four notes moving up the scale: “La – la – la – laaaaa.” Everyone in the family knows what that means: Queen of Heavena 12th-century Latin hymn to Mary that Peter’s mother taught her nine children.

The Halpin parents, their six children, and at least four spouses (a dozen people in all) immediately sang it in harmony.

A family friend recorded a video of the singing. Someone posted it on the Internet and it 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 National Catholic Register Thursday night how he felt during family prayer.

“I thought, ‘I want to be strong for my people right now,’ for my parents. And when we started singing, I felt like we were all being strong for each other,” Halpin said in a phone interview.

“I already feel very good because we were able to be there together as a family and we were able to unite through this song that means so much to our family,” he said.

The interpretation of Queen of Heaven by the Halpins—a seemingly effortless, multi-part harmony with volume and various tones—led Andrew to ask himself a question: How did they do it?

“We are a very musical family. They instilled that taste in us from day one,” said Andrew, a songwriter who has a wife and a young daughter.

As children, Andrew and his brothers participated in a choir led by an experienced choir teacher as part of a group of home schooling Catholic. They all played musical instruments from a very young age. Nowadays, they also occasionally perform in public in a family band called The Haypenny Pigs.

“After our faith, it is one of the things that most unites my family,” he said. “There has never been a happy or sad moment when music didn’t have a role to play.”

A home full of 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 room and the girls another. About two decades ago, his parents added a master bedroom with another bathroom, Andrew said.

The moment Thursday morning was sad, even devastating.

His parents lost their house, where all the children grew up. One of his sisters and her daughter lost their house, which was at the back of the same property.

But this has not shaken his faith, he said.

“We have to give everything to God. And if that means our home right now, we choose to trust that we are in the palm of your hand,” Andrew told the Register.

Before evacuating, Andrew’s parents, who are in their early 60s, managed to save 40 years of family photo albums and some essential documents. But Jackie’s genealogical collection, including old family photos, disappeared. Just like almost everything else in the house.

“You are standing on the ashes of your childhood, actually of your life,” Andrew said. “But you are alive.”

Peter is a contractor who runs a concrete business. He lost a work truck in the fire, as well as his house.

A GoFundMe page for Peter and Jackie Halpin had raised more than $60,000 as of early Friday morning.

Meanwhile, the family tries to highlight the positive.

“What I would like people to take away from this sadness, from this tragedy, is that we can extract joy from it. We can instill love,” Andrew said.

Over the years, the backyard of the family home has been the scene of many parties for family and friends, complete 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 father decided even before they got married that he wanted to throw a lot of such parties.

“He wanted to create a place where his family and friends could celebrate and forget their worries,” Andrew said.

“This was home to more than just us. And it’s hard to leave it behind,” he said.

“People know that house as a place of faith, a place of fellowship, community and music,” Andrew said. “I assure you that when we rebuild, there will be music there again.”

Translated and adapted by the ACI Prensa team. Originally published in National Catholic Register.