Charred Chains — A Small Business Restored

When the fire warnings turned urgent, small business owner Persia Dona was at home in the Pacific Palisades, on the phone with her insurance company. The call abruptly ended as she quickly grabbed her essentials: “My passport, my favorite bag, my toothbrush.” That was all she had as she fled.

She did not know it then, but her business and sense of normalcy were about to change completely. She sifted through three hours of traffic to Beverly Hills, where she would stay for weeks. When firefighters finally let her back into her home, the scene was unrecognizable. Persia recalls, “It was pitch black, no lights, I couldn’t see or grab anything.”

The walls of her home still stood, but it was unlivable. Her jewelry studio—the heart of her business—was suddenly out of reach. “Everything used to be set up just right,” she says. Now Persia is forced to sacrifice time and money to order duplicates of the pieces and materials she needs to run her business.

For months, Persia Dona Jewelry couldn’t operate. Clients who knew her workspace in the Palisades understood and reached out, but many of her customers across the country did not know what was going on in Southern California that January. Even now, as she works from a new location, she admits, “I still do not feel settled… I feel scattered.” The emotional weight of trying to uphold her business while taking time for herself was difficult for Persia, as it is for any self-run business owner experiencing disaster. Still, Persia reminds herself, “Life goes on.”

Then a call came from a local store that had carried her pieces. The store had burned, and the chains of her necklaces had charred, but the shining gemstones were still intact. The discovery, rooted in misery, became a source of inspiration for Persia as she plans to create a new collection from those burnt pieces.

The fires changed Persia’s mindset as a business owner. Running a small brand means staying flexible and being ready to adapt to whatever comes next. Through all the hardship, Persia remains strong. “That’s the only choice we have,” she says. “You just have to move on and make the best of it.” These are lessons we can all learn from—even if the California fires are not personal to us.