It's been more than thirty years since Ali MacGraw lost his home in the 1993 Malibu fire. Now, in the face of Los Angeles' fires, the 85-year-old "Love Story" actress is sharing her emotional story of loss and recovery. She details the moment she knew it was time to escape Los Angeles and offers advice for those affected by recent disasters.

"When this happened to me, I lost everything," McGraw, who currently lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, told The Hollywood Reporter. "The little ratty outfit I wore to yoga was literally all I had after the fire. I had just rented a house and all my stuff was in it. Just before I left for work in Thailand, I packed everything Things were laid out exactly as I wanted them, and anything that didn’t fit in that house, I knew where everything was, including every book.”

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McGraw always dreamed of living near the Pacific Ocean and rented multiple homes in Malibu throughout the 1970s.

However, in November 1993, a fire broke out and burned 18,000 acres in Malibu within ten days, according to the Malibu Times. McGraw's rental house burned down.

"Everything is gone," she told The Hollywood Reporter . "The only thing there was an interesting property overlooking the ocean and metal outdoor furniture provided by the homeowner. Looking out over this churning ocean, the sky filled with terror and smoke, it was like a movie scene".

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“I remember saying very calmly, ‘What am I supposed to learn from this?’ It was ‘Why me? "A complicated version of that. But that's not my reason," she continued. "What was happening was so bizarre and huge that the end of Malibu was completely shattered. That's when I heard the message: It's time to leave Los Angeles. I burst out laughing and thought, 'Wow , isn’t it? Is there a more subtle way to suggest this? "

"For some reason, I never cried," she added. "I didn't go on. It's not a comment on how great I am or anything, but I was very calm. I don't know why because it was so scary. It's considered one of the worst fires in the United States. Malibu , but nothing that happened in the past can affect what is happening now.”

McGraw became famous in Los Angeles.

Throughout much of the 1960s, MacGraw worked for several years as a photography assistant at Harper's Bazaar magazine and later as a model and stylist at Vogue.

In 1969, she gained worldwide recognition for her role in Goodbye, Columbus, and a year later she starred opposite Ryan O'Neal in Love Story. Los Angeles is home.

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"What was happening was so bizarre and huge that the end of Malibu was completely shattered. That's when I heard the message: It was time to leave Los Angeles."

— Ali McGraw

McGraw said she wanted to stay in Malibu, but then realized it.

“This realization coincided with a moment that same week when my friend and I were walking through the heartbreaking parts of the Palisades that had just been destroyed,” she said. "We were walking down the street looking for houses to live in. There was nothing. I remember my friends and I took Starbucks, we took our dogs, and we walked every block. I started crying because I was a few This man had been doing this every day for months and he obviously saw me crying and he said very rudely: “Why are you crying? "I said, "I can't find a place to live. He said, "But I heard you had a house near Santa Fe?" "I told him it was for sale and he said if it wasn't for sale, 'Why don't you just go there?'"

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"I don't know if I'm going to like it," she added. "I have never been someone who wanted to live in a desert or a dry place. I loved being near the ocean and living among greenery and flowers. He said this incredibly obvious thing that changed my life: "What if If you don't like it, don't stay. "I was obsessed with it for a while. That was 32 years ago."

McGraw said it's important for people to understand that disaster can happen to "any of us" at any time.

"The more people show kindness and generosity, the better off we will be," she said. “I would hope that anyone with any vacant property would be willing to help these people out for a year at the most reasonable rent they could imagine, rather than as a big opportunity to make money. We live in a time when people have more money than the entire country When, for them, helping a few families will really make a difference."

Having experienced similar situations, the actress urged people to show more "overall compassion, kindness and generosity."

"(It) can change our civilization," she said. "What the hell happened to that statement 'but for the grace of God, I'd be there'?" Treat others the way you want to be treated, and over time, with deep breaths and kindness, you will move into another world. a feeling. "

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"Now is a perfect time for people to reach out," she added. "It doesn't have to be huge, even the smallest gestures can make a world of difference. We have to start flipping language and emotional behavior on how the world seems to work right now to me, high hysteria, anger and I'm sick of it This kind of judgment.”

While McGraw once lived a busy life in Los Angeles, she is now enjoying the peace and tranquility that Santa Fe brings.

"I'm a weird old bird at this point. I live in northern Santa Fe, kind of close to nature, and I'm very involved in the community," she told The New York Times in May. "I'm lucky to be in good health. And I know a lot of people don't have that option. I live my life to be happy."

"I'm grateful that I have it all, but I live a very different life now," she added. "I don't care at all about being seen wearing the latest clothes or knowing the latest songs. I'm not ashamed of not knowing those things. I did all that and was seen, that's for another time".

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