Waffle House employees’ home catches fire Christmas morning, community now rallying around them
Waffle House #WaffleHouse
At the Waffle House in Hamilton Tuesday afternoon, customers received service with a smile.
Employee Kayla Reichenbach greeted them with a smile and thanked them for coming in.
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What patrons probably didn’t notice was the hardship Kayla Reichenbach and her husband Jeffery Reichenbach, who also works there, are facing.
“Being here helps me because I can talk to people and put a smile on my face. Nobody knows here what’s going on in my real life,” Kayla Reichenbach said.
Their ‘real life’ consists of unlivable living conditions. Their Middletown home caught fire Christmas morning.
“Everybody’s OK. That’s the only thing that matters to me. I can rebuy everything else. I can work for it,” Jeffery Reichenbach said.
The Reichenbachs had been working a 21-hour shift Christmas Eve through Christmas Day when they got a call from the Middletown Police Department that their home was on fire.
“I instantly jumped in the car and made the 30-minute drive to find out what we had left,” Kayla Reichenbach said. “We lost our living room, and the kids lost their clothes. We were able to save the bunk bed because it’s metal. Anything besides that in their room unfortunately is gone.”
So much of what they had worked overtime for including presents and their son and daughter’s clothes were gone.
“My family’s my main thing. Everything I do, I do for them every single day,” Kayla Reichenbach said.
Family is why they both returned to work just two hours after their home caught fire and have worked every day since.
“I just want everybody to be where we can call something home and go back to,” Jeffery Reichenbach said.
For Kayla, her friendly customers — whether they know it or not — have been a sense of comfort through this trying time.
“Here, it’s a little bit of a getaway from what’s really happening,” Kayla Reichenbach said. “People don’t know, until you’re in a situation like this, how much love and kindness really means.”
A coworker created a GoFundMe for the Reichenbachs. If you’d like to donate, click here.
Reds Hamburgers in New Miami has opened its doors as a collection site for the family. For those interested in donating clothes, 5-year-old Khloee Reichenbach wears a girls size 6-8, and 7-year-old Jaxstyn wears a boys 8-10.
Both children were sleeping at their aunt’s house the morning of the fire.
Middletown firefighters said the cause of the fire remains under investigation. Firefighters did rescue the family’s two dogs.
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