Bette Midler has shared a heartbreaking clip of a family singing a hymn in the ruins of their home of 37 years, which was destroyed by the Los Angeles fires.
Beginning this Tuesday, the area was struck by its worst windstorms in over a decade, fueling fires that have destroyed thousands of structures and claimed at least 11 lives over the course of the week.
About 130,000 people were put under evacuation orders or warnings, as the authorities sent out K-9 units trained to detect human remains in the wreckage.
The Halpin family lived at their house in Altadena, California for nearly four decades before it was consumed by the ongoing Eaton Fire.
In a haunting clip that has gone viral online, they returned to the site of the burned building and gathered in a semicircle to sing Regina Caeli (Queen Of Heaven), a medieval Latin song dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
When the Halpin family returned to the remains of their house, the only thing they found intact was a statue of Mary, they told KTLA5.
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In a haunting clip that has gone viral online, the Halpin family returned to the site of the burned building and gathered in a semicircle to sing Regina Caeli (Queen Of Heaven)
The lyric of the hymn, which the Halpins sang in the original Latin, translates to: ‘Queen of Heaven, rejoice, hallelujah. For He whom you were worthy to bear, hallelujah, is risen, as He said, hallelujah. Pray to God for us, hallelujah.’
As the video of the Halpins singing circulated online, Midler, 79, shared it to her Instagram page, writing simply: ‘A family in the Eaton Fire. #eaton #losangeles.’
‘We gave our pain to Christ and his mother. We prayed a consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and then sang,’ said Andrew Halpin, one member of the family.
His sister Marie Clare Metcalfe added that ‘faith has always been the foundation of our family, and it will continue to be as we navigate forward.’
She explained that her parents’ house – the ruins of which are seen in the viral video – was ‘home base’ for the family, which now has 14 grandchildren.
Andrew and Marie Claire’s sister Gianna also ‘lost everything’ in the fire, as she lived at her parents’ backhouse with her two-year-old daughter.
The family launched a GoFundMe page after their home burned, and as of noon Saturday have raised over $97,000, surpassing their goal of $90,000.
In the video of the Halpins singing the hymn, their statue of the Virgin Mary can be seen sitting inside the semicircle have formed.
As the video of the Halpins singing circulated online, Midler, 79, shared it to her Instagram page, writing simply: ‘A family in the Eaton Fire. #eaton #losangeles’
The Halpin family are pictured in a photo shared to their GoFundMe, which as of noon Saturday has raised over $97,000, surpassing its goal of $90,000
One blaze in the Pacific Palisades has consumed a number of celebrity homes, including residences owned by Paris Hilton, Jeff Bridges, Anthony Hopkins, John Goodman, Miles Teller, Tina Knowles and Anna Faris.
Midler shared her own emotional message to those affected by the fires on her Instagram page this Friday, amid the continuing disaster.
‘To everyone living through the apocalyptic and unbelievable fires of the last few days, who have lost everything and now have the enormous task of getting back on their feet; I am devastated and heartbroken for all of us,’ she wrote.
‘I wish only the best for our beloved city, now and always…’ added the Beaches star, who is known to her fans as The Divine Miss M.
Midler, who sold her Manhattan penthouse in 2021 for $50 million in 2021, did not share whether she also has a home in danger from the fires.
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