After playing cards and spending time together by the fireplace on Monday, the weary family went to sleep, brush their teeth, and snuggled into beds as the Houston area descended on one of its coldest nights.
The family’s home in Sugar Land, like millions of others in Lone Star state, had no power.
Edison, 8, went into the room of his 11-year-old sister, Olivia, which had bunk beds. The children’s grandmother, Loan Le, planned to sleep with the youngest, 5-year-old Colette. And the mother of the children, 41-year-old Jackie Nguyen, went to her room.
Those are the last moments Nguyen remembers about the night.
At about 2 a.m., Sugar Land firefighters responded to a fire reported by a neighbor who had enveloped the family’s home in flames, said Doug Adolph, a spokesman for the city and department. The three children and Le died. Nguyen and a friend were taken to a hospital to treat injuries such as smoke inhalation and burns.
“I just know I woke up in the hospital,” Nguyen said on Sunday.
Visit their Go Fund Me to commemorate Nguyen’s children.
Nearly a week after the fire, Adolph said there were no updates on the investigation into the cause of the fire. According to reports on their social media accounts, the family tried to keep warm with a fireplace, Adolph said.
“They were clearly trying to keep warm,” Adolph said at the time. “We can’t say this was the cause, we just think we know they used a fireplace.”
In the days since the deadly fire, Nguyen said she misses everything about her children. Recently she missed taking them to school. And at 4:00 pm she missed seeing them come home.
“Most of all, I think what I’m going to miss is just seeing them grow up to be these wonderful people that I knew would be,” she said.
When Nguyen went into labor with Colette a few years ago on the day of Olivia’s birthday, the eldest child’s excitement filled.
“Oh my god,” Nguyen recalled her firstborn saying. “I’m going to have a twin sister.”
Olivia had since matured, developing an intelligence and interest in a wide variety of topics for an 11-year-old: the most recent elections, history, law and activism. She believed in accepting all people, her mother said.
And sometimes she picked up nuances in TV shows, even before her mother.
“I just felt like she was turning this important corner in life when it came to character development,” said Nguyen. “I just knew she was going to be just this amazing person who would contribute so much to the world and I feel not only a sense of loss to my daughter but a sense of loss to the world and society that she was not given a chance to to do something meaningful with her life. “
The youngster was already looking for others.
She baked cinnamon buns for Santa on Christmas Eve, following the logic – since Olivia was 4 – that the old man might be tired of eating cookies. Plus, it could help make their home a memorable stop for him.
An adventurous eater, Olivia once talked about maybe becoming a food critic or traveling the world for a TV show. Almost two weeks ago, for her mother’s birthday, she tried to make a fried egg sandwich for breakfast.
Meanwhile, “sandwiched between two girls,” as Nguyen put it, Edison did not seem to suffer from any middle child syndrome. Being the only boy in the house gave him some sort of claim to fame, Nguyen said.
Active, he and Nguyen started running together for the past year. He also learned to ride a bicycle on two wheels.
He was mildly autistic and liked arts and crafts, Nguyen said. He drew his family, as well as abstract art. Some kind of obsessive personality guided his passions. If a line on a drawing didn’t come out the way he wanted, he’d tear it up and try again, his mother said. He immersed himself fully in his interest du jour.
Over a period of months, art and architecture captivated his curiosity. Everyone he met would be asked a whole series of questions, Nguyen said.
do you like modern art?
What kind of art do you like?
What kind of houses do you like?
I like houses with natural light. Do you like homes with natural light?
“He was super smart,” said Nguyen. “Just had a hunger for knowledge.”
Although watching television or movies with him can be a bit annoying for his sisters with such an insatiable thirst.
And Colette, the youngest, would talk to anyone on that fiancé, Nguyen said. She loved to sing and played for others.
Her charisma extended beyond her years. And as the youngest she refused to be bullied.
“People just loved her,” Nguyen said. “I was sure she was going to do something great with herself too.”
And she loved others too.
When the family got a golden doodle around the holidays, Colette got excited to serve as an older sister. She fed the dog and tried to carry the fast-growing puppy for as long as possible. Sometimes, maybe when she was tired of talking to everyone in the house, Nguyen speculated, turning to her new younger, furry relative.
“Command the dog or just pet it,” Nguyen said. “Just literally tell him about her day.”
Sometimes her only spectator was her grandmother, Le.
Le was a refugee from Vietnam who moved first to Kansas with Nguyen’s father and then California, before settling in the Houston area in 1994. She loved the three kids and helped Nguyen build a career by helping out with them, she said.
She picked up the children at school or went shopping and spent time with them. Olivia would ask questions about life in Vietnam. Edison would show her his drawings. And Colette provided entertainment. Nguyen said her father died 8 years ago, which was a huge loss for Le. But the kids helped.
‘She loved my children so much. So much, ”said Nguyen. ‘She loved all their art. She loved everything they did. She kept everything. “
Nguyen expects to complete an MBA program at Rice University this spring. She mentioned her mother’s help because she had her career made. Since the fire, her community at Rice has launched an online fundraiser for Nguyen and the children’s father, Nathan. Nguyen said she hopes to use the money to honor her children, either by establishing a foundation or by making contributions to existing charities.
People’s gestures have helped, Nguyen said.
“You feel like you are drowning and you feel like you just can’t breathe,” Nguyen said. But the actions of those who helped – even the kind words here and there – were like taking to the skies. “It really speaks, frankly, as the heart of Houston – our ability to mobilize and for the community to come together.”
On Valentine’s Day, as the winter storm approached the Houston area, Nguyen and the kids watched Titanic. Olivia hated the movie after reading about it online. Nguyen wanted to prove it was a “great” movie.
They had to stop the movie several times because Edison questioned plot holes that Nguyen had never thought of.
And why is a ship maneuvered in some way?
“Can you just look at it?” Nguyen recalled his sisters asking back, “Can we just watch?”
He refrained from examining too much, Nguyen said, and they finished watching. Everyone loved the movie.
The next day, with no power since he woke up, Le passed over early. She spent the day in the house, which still had power, with the children and Nguyen.
They also lost power there around 5:00 PM.
“I told everyone to keep their battery power in their devices,” Nguyen said. “We wanted to have a means of communication.”
Olivia had scheduled a Zoom call with friends from a summer camp she went to in upstate New York.
Could she use her battery power, she pleaded.
Yes, Nguyen told her.
They lit the fireplace to keep warm and hung out with each other and spent quality time.
Time, Nguyen said, they appreciated.
As the hours passed and the children tried to teach their grandmother a game of cards, everyone got tired.
Eventually they all went to sleep.