There were thousands of little things, the memorabilia that was important and meaningful to me, even if they weren’t objectively valuable

As told to Rivka Streicher by Nachum Segal

March 27, 2022 was a Sunday, not a workday. I was home when I got the call.

“The studio’s on fire.”

What???

My studio on Grand Street in Lower Manhattan was the main headquarters of the Nachum Segal Network, where we streamed JM in the AM every morning for the last 20 years. In that 330-square-meter space, I’d nurtured and grown my 39-year career. It housed what I’d built over decades. The studio was everything.

Most of it was consumed by the fire.

When the fire marshals finally let us enter the building again, my family gathered on the sidewalk outside. The afternoon was breezy and mild, like no fire ever happened. My children insisted that I wait outside while they went in first. I didn’t argue — I was still getting over the shock. I couldn’t yet face the loss.

I sat in the lobby while my children went up to the second floor. One by one, they started coming down to where I was waiting, carrying different items for me to examine.