ILLIOPOLIS - From the pile of debris which had once been the Jordan family home in Illiopolis, Lance Watkins, a family friend, shouted out, "We have a survivor! The cowboy lives."

His discovery brought cheers from the family who had just watched their home of 18 years become a pile of rubble.

They had already laughed together as the chimney came tumbling down, Christmas lights still attached. They hooted when removing an upstairs wall revealed a blackened toilet. They shed tears when walls of the house crumbled onto themselves.

The cowboy silhouette, painted black, still had a piece of the structure attached.

"I'd wanted to keep a piece of the house," said Valory Jordan. "This is it."

The Jordans - Ron and Valory and their children Niki, 20; Jayme, 18; and R. J., 17 - were watching their home disappear Wednesday for a second time.

This time, however, the disappearance was planned; the first wasn't.

Kelly Construction Inc., C & J Excavating and Onyx Valley View Landfill Inc. all donated their services to clear the lot for a new home which the family hopes to put there.

On Mother's Day, after services at Niantic United Methodist Church, Valory Jordan recalled, the family was going to her mother's but Niki returned home to get her car. She found fire engines surrounding the home and called the rest of the family.

By the time Illiopolis, Buffalo and Dawson departments answered the call the house was pretty well gone, she said. A neighbor walking a dog, added Ron Jordan, had seen smoke from upstairs.

Their home, he said, had been uninsured partially because of the high cost brought on by their wood-burning furnace.

"What we saved was pretty much anything metal," he added. "What the fire didn't get, the smoke and water damage did."

The fire is part of a string of bad luck events for the family.

Though now employed with Kelly Construction, Ron Jordan had been laid off from Formosa Plastics Corp. following the 2004 explosion. Soon after the fire, Valory Jordan had to have major knee surgery and was off work three months.

But the house fire has also shown them the goodness in people.

"The Lord has really been involved in it," stressed Ron Jordan, citing the congregations of the Niantic and Illiopolis United Methodist churches. When someone would ask what the family needed, like household appliances for their temporary rental property, "We'd have three free offers the very next day."

As the demolition continued, Valory Jordan pointed out a shower curtain amid the swirling dust.

"I had just done my bathroom in bears," she remembered. "I had thousands of teddy bears, Winnie the Pooh, Boyd's Bears, Beanie Baby bears. I lost all my bears."

It's those kinds of losses, continued Valory Jordan, that make a house fire difficult.

"The big-screen television, the computer, they can all be replaced. But snapshots of my kids, things that my mother had given me that were hers, things with sentimental value, you can't replace those."

IF YOU GO

What: Benefit for Ron and Valory Jordan and family with food, bake sale, silent auction, music

When: 4 to 7 p.m. Saturday, June 18

Where: Niantic United Methodist Church which is sponsoring with Illiopolis United Methodist Church

Monetary donations are being accepted at Niantic State Bank, in care of Craig Eckhart, Box 259, Niantic, IL 62551.

HANDOFGOD

Ron Jordan feels strongly that the hand of God has been involved in the lives of his family, even though they've experienced some not-so-good happenings in recent months.

This is one story he uses to prove his belief.

As one of the people organizing a benefit for the family was receiving coupons from a drycleaners, another customer was there. After the volunteer got the coupons, the customer followed her out of the building and then donated $20 to the family.

That customer, said Jordan, was the widow of Larry Graves, his friend who died in the Formosa Plastics Corp. explosion in April, 2004. Graves was the same friend who substituted for him at work that Friday because Jordan's mother was gravely ill.

"I told that story at church (Niantic United Methodist Church)," said Jordan. "A gasp went through the whole crowd."

Arlene Mannlein can be reached at amannlein@herald-review.com or 421-6976.