DEAR ABBY: Recently we had a devastasting fire in the East Bay hills of Berkeley and Oakland. There were many lives lost -- people and animals injured, and countless homes destroyed.
In the days after the fire, the San Francisco Chronicle printed stories of personal loss. Those who were able to escape from their homes with a few personal treasures mentioned that they grabbed photographs! This brought to mind that perhaps one of the best things family and friends of those who have lost their homes can do is to go through their own personal photo collections and choose photos to give the family who has sustained this tragic loss.
Negatives can be made from photographs, and perhaps some of the local film developers could offer a discount on the process for this particular group of individuals. It would be a small way to give people back parts of their lives. -- SYLVIA CLONINGER, BELMONT, CALIF.
DEAR SYLVIA: Only a person with a generous heart would have thought of the above. Take a bow, Sylvia!