The Camp Fire, torched memories, and the quest for a 1975 church cookbook in Tallahassee

Emily Sumner was on the way to drop off her 11-year-old son at school in Paradise, California, when she saw the flames. What would become California's deadliest wildfire was closing in on her neighborhood.

Sumner immediately turned around, went home and packed to evacuate. She could hear propane tanks exploding.

The wall of flames devoured her precious town, taking her home, her family mementos, her hiking and camping spots. 

"The little mountain town that I grew to love is never going to be the same," said the former Tallahassee resident.

On a Facebook group called "Paradise Fire Adopt-a-Family," a forum where people from around the country can connect with and help fire victims, Sumner posted in a thread about items lost in the fire.

What Sumner missed was a small-batch, 200-page 1975 cookbook passed down from her great grandmother, Annie Mae Barton. It was put together by women from a church off Tennessee Street, Oak City Assembly of God, which is now called Generations Church.

"Our Daily Bread" is filled with classic Southern favorites like corn pudding and cherries-in-the-snow that Sumner, 31, grew up eating in her Miccosukee home off Late Autumn Lane. Cooking those familiar, folksy dishes, she conjured fond memories in her California kitchen.

She misses the sense of home the recipes gave her.

"The cookbook was where I turned to when I needed comfort and to remember my roots in the South," Sumner said. 

Judy Haccou, a 64-year-old retiree in San Francisco, saw Sumner's post and decided to help.

"That's something I could put my search skills to use for," she said. "I didn't know if I'd be successful, but I thought I could try."

One phone call after another, Haccou eventually got in touch with the church's administrative assistant Debbie Kerr, whose cousin typed up the recipes and sent it to a church member to spiral-bind in a studio print shop.

Kerr has been on the hunt to find an extra copy of the book. So far, she hasn't found someone who is willing to give up a copy. If she still can't find one, Kerr said she'll head to a print shop to make a copy for Sumner herself.

"This was a very small production," she said. "The people that have them are older."

With only 30 minutes to evacuate, Sumner's family couldn't salvage much. The online group "has been a great help," she said.

Sumner's youngest son turned 1 a few weeks after the fire. Homeless since Nov. 8, Sumner, her fiance and two kids have been living with a friend in a nearby town. But soon, they will move into a new home in neighboring Oroville, California.

The fourth-generation Tallahasseean said having the cookbook back will help her stay connected to her roots. 

"We're all very lost, sad, hurt, confused. We kind of feel like our town was just taken from us," Sumner said, "and so, to kind of have that peace, that normal, is very important to me."

Do you have a copy of the cookbook? Email news@tallahassee.com.

Reach Nada Hassanein at nhassanein@tallahassee.com or on Twitter @nhassanein_.