Nov 20, 2009 8:25 pm US/Eastern
Woman Who Lost Family In B'klyn Fire Speaks Out
Rose Danielle Etienne Lost Her Two Children, Their Father In Crown Heights Blaze
Reporting
Lou Young
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Rose Danielle Etienne told CBS 2 that despite losing her two children and their father in a fire in Brooklyn, they still brought her joy because to her "they are still alive."
CBS
A Brooklyn woman left devastated by a fatal fire just days ago is slowly trying to put her life back together, and now the community she calls home is stepping in to help.
Rose Danielle Etienne's grief is so heavy she cannot walk unassisted, but she wants to speak out about her loved ones. The 26-year-old mother of two lost both her children and their father – her companion – in a horrible smoky apartment fire in Crown Heights on Wednesday.
She was at work when her world shattered and she came home to find everyone gone. The two boys were only 1 and 2 years old.
"We were always together. We'd sleep together," she told CBS 2, mentioning how one of her children loved crackers, the other bananas.
Since the fire, Etienne has been living with the mother of the man she called her husband in another tiny Brooklyn apartment. They are both adrift, stunned, and overwhelmed, but in the arms of community determined to help.
"They've lost basically everything. They have no resources to bury this family, no funds to start a new life over again; no funds for a new home, a new apartment, for furniture, for clothes, nothing," said City Councilwoman Letitia James (D-Brooklyn). "They lost everything in that fire."
The father was home because he'd recently lost his job. The older baby was kept home from nursery school because of a fever. She spoke briefly about the man of the house, Myrtel Jean, and how much he meant to her.
"He gave me everything I wanted, everything I asked him, he told me, 'Wait I'm going to give it to you Saturday, or another day, but I know I'm gonna get it,'" she recalled, saying they still bring her joy. "To me they're still alive."
The funeral for the father and his two young children is set for a week from Sunday to give relatives in Haiti time to make the trip here. The city may provide emergency funds for the funeral. The grave plots have been donated along with clothing with for the victims' bodies.
Donations can also be made at any branch of the Carver Federal Savings Bank.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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