‘Soul-crushing’: How one Alberta musician is healing after losing home to L.A. wildfires​on February 5, 2025 at 9:06 pm

When Jens Lindemann and his wife drove away from their home they had lived in for 18 years on January 10, never, in a million years, did they think that would be the last time they ever saw it upright.

“We had no clue that it would be that kind of danger,” the Alberta trumpeter said of the wildfires that lapped up his family home on Palisades Hill, one of thousands of properties lost in the L.A. fires that have left 29 people dead and forced hundreds of thousands to evacuate their homes.

He and his wife spent their next nights in a hotel and at the home of a friend. On Jan. 21, they visited their property one last time, to take a look at the devastation wrought by the fires.

Lindemann took out his trumpet and played a short version of “Smile” by Charlie Chaplin, recorded on camera by his wife Jennifer Snow.

The video of his performance has since gone viral internationally, with an outpouring of support for the brass soloist online and through various platforms.

“There has been no shortage of people reaching out with compassionate words,” Lindemann said, “and anything that they can possibly do to help and that has been a huge, huge plus for both my wife and I in terms of just the healing process.”

The short performance, he said, was an unplanned “benediction.”

“It’s a song about heartache and trying to get through it by smiling one way or the other. If you adopt that you’ll figure out a way on the other side,” he said. “That’s why that felt like the tune to play.”

But Los Angeles no longer feels the same to Lindemann. “If you ask me the obvious question, would I move back there? I can’t answer it honestly and the likelihood is no,” he said.

Even after he had played his song on the rubble of his home, he and his wife “couldn’t stay there long.”

“It was just too much,” he said. “It’s what I call this is going to be a pre-fire and a post-fire life.”

In the weeks since, the couple found a house in Scottsdale, Arizona and have made that home for now.

“It’s a beautiful home,” he said, adding that it is owned by a Calgarian. “It feels like I’m on a retreat, a musical retreat, a spiritual retreat, a healing retreat, it’s very difficult to put into words. But it’s fantastic to spend time alone with your own thoughts and start to rebuild.”

A couple of days ago, Snow flew to Newfoundland to spend time with her family. “She decided that being around family and network of people that also cared for her was the place to be,” he said.

But Lindemann has opted for solitude.