Garden Grove family reunites with stranger who housed them during chemical tank evacuation

A reunion, a few weeks in the making, brought together new friends as a Garden Grove family visited the once-stranger who had invited them into his Huntington Beach home to stay while they evacuated during the GKN Aerospace chemical tank crisis.

On May 21, Garden Grove residents Nicole Ryan, Mark, and Ronald Roslawski were in Berkley to attend Ronald's grandson's graduation.

"We had a great time, but we started hearing the reports," Nicole said. The reports were about a massive chemical leak back home. It was on their train ride back that they found out their home was in the evacuation zone. They weren't allowed into their neighborhood, not even to pack

"If there was an explosion, I was wondering if I'd have a house to go back to, and I'm too old to start over again," Ronald said.

So the search was immediately on, looking for hotels that would take in three adults and a dog. They found nothing, and so Nicole turned to Facebook.

"If anybody has an area or a room… we'd be very appreciative," she posted.

To her surprise, within 10 minutes, Jed Douglas, a total stranger from neighboring Huntington Beach, replied to her post.

"First thing I thought of was, I have this guest room, and nobody's in it right now," Douglas said. Next thing they knew, Jed and his wife were escorting them upstairs to their temporary home-away-from-home.

"You just don't find people like this who would open up like that," Mark tearfully said, adding that the one-room loft felt like a 5-star hotel.

"They brought up wine, which was muchly appreciated. They had snacks, water, coffee," Nicole said, adding she very much appreciated the leap-of-faith Jed and his wife took by welcoming them into their home.

It wasn't until the next day that they all realized how scary the situation could have been. They got to know each other pretty well over the four days they spent together. 

"You're supposed to give without expecting anything in return. And if you do that, you end up getting as much or more than you gave," Jed said.

And so, a new friendship is born, thanks to a stranger's single act of kindness.

"Kindness overall always helps. Always helps. And we were so appreciative. And heck yeah, we're going to pass it on," Nicole said.