After the tired family chatted with the fireplace on Monday and spent time together, they went to bed, brushed their teeth and sat in beds while the Houston area sank into one of its coldest nights.
The family’s home in Sugar Land, like millions of others in Lone Star State, then had no power.
Edison, 8, went to the room of his 11-year-old sister, Olivia, with bunk beds. The child’s grandmother, Loan Le, was planning to sleep with the youngest, 5-year-old Colette. And the children’s mother, 41-year-old Jackie Nguyen, went to her room.
These are the last moments Nguyen remembers overnight.
At about 2 a.m., Sugar Land firefighters responded to a fire reported by a neighbor and the house’s house was engulfed in flames, city and department spokesman Doug Adolph said. The three children and Le died. Nguyen and a friend were taken to a hospital for treatment of injuries that included smoke inhalation and burns.
“I just know I woke up in the hospital,” Nguyen said Sunday.
Visit their Go Fund Me to commemorate the Nguyen children.
Nearly a week after the fire, Adolph said there are no updates on the investigation into the cause of the fire. According to reports on their social media accounts, the family was trying to warm up with a fireplace, Adolph said.
“Obviously they’re trying to stay warm,” Adolph said at the time. “We can not say that it was the cause, we just think we know they used a fireplace.”
In the days since the deadly fire, Nguyen has said she misses everything about her children. The other day she missed driving them to school. And at 4 p.m., she missed them arriving home.
“Most of all, I think, I’ll just see them grow into these wonderful people I knew they would be,” she said.
A few years ago, when Nguyen went to give birth to Colette on Colette’s birthday, the eldest child filled the excitement.
“Oh woe,” Nguyen recalled her firstborn saying. “I’m going to have a twin sister.”
Olivia has since matured and developed an intelligence and interest in a wide range of topics for an 11-year-old: the most recent election, history, legislation and activism. She believed she would accept all people, her mother said.
And sometimes she recorded nuances in TV shows even before her mother.
“I just felt like she’s turning this important corner in life when it comes to character development,” Nguyen said. ‘I just knew that she would just become this wonderful person who would contribute so much to the world and I feel not only a sense of loss for my daughter, but a sense of loss for the world and society that she has. did not get the chance to do something meaningful with her life. ”
The young man had already looked at others.
She baked Santa cinnamon rolls on Christmas Eve and according to the logic – since Olivia was 4 – that the old man was sick of eating cookies. On top of that, it can help make their home an unforgettable stop for him.
An adventurous eater, Olivia spoke at one point 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 her hand at making a fried egg sandwich for breakfast.
Meanwhile, Edison, ‘clocked right in the middle of two girls’, as Nguyen put it, apparently had no middle child. Because he was the only boy in the house, he gave a claim to fame, Nguyen said.
Active, he and Nguyen have started running together over the past year. He also learned to ride a bicycle on two wheels.
He was slightly autistic and loved arts and crafts, Nguyen said. He draws his family, as well as abstract art. A kind of obsessive personality led his passions. If a line on a drawing did not come out the way he wanted, he would tear it up and try again, his mother said. He completely immersed himself in his interest.
In one period of months, art and architecture captivated his curiosity. Everyone he came across would answer a number 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 houses with natural light?
“He was very bright,” Nguyen said. “Just had a thirst for knowledge.”
Though television or movies with him might be a little worse for his sisters with such an unquenchable thirst.
And Colette, the youngest, would talk to anyone who was engaged, Nguyen said. She loved singing and loved performing for others.
Her charisma extends beyond her years. And because she was the youngest, she refused to be bullied.
“People just loved her,” Nguyen said. “I was sure she was going to do something wonderful with herself, too.”
And she loved others.
When the family gets a golden scribble during the holidays, Colette gets excited to serve as an older sister. She feeds the dog and tries to carry the fast growing puppy for as long as she can. Sometimes, perhaps, when she’s all tired of talking in the house, Nguyen speculates, she turns to her new younger, hairy relative.
“To give the dog orders or just sit there and pet him,” Nguyen said. “Just tell him literally about her day.”
Sometimes her one spectator was her grandmother, Le.
Le was a refugee from Vietnam who first moved with Kguyen’s father to Kansas, then California, before settling in the Houston area in 1994. She loved the three children and helped Nguyen have a career by helping them, she said.
She will pick up the children at school or go grocery shopping and spend time with all three of them. Olivia would ask about life in Vietnam. Edison showed her his drawings. And Colette offered entertainment. Nguyen said her father died 8 years ago, which was a huge loss for Le. But the kids helped.
“She loved my kids so much. So much, ”Nguyen said. “She loved all their tricks. She loved everything they did. She kept everything. ‘
Nguyen expects to complete an MBA program at Rice University this spring. She credited her mother for helping her career progress. Since the fire, her community at Rice has launched an online fundraiser for Nguyen and the child’s father, Nathan. Nguyen said she hopes to use the money to honor her children, either by founding a foundation or making contributions to existing charities.
People’s gestures helped, Nguyen said.
“You feel like you’re drowning and you feel like you just can’t breathe,” Nguyen said. But the actions of those who helped — even the good words here and there — were like going up. “It honestly speaks, like the heart of Houston, of our ability to mobilize and that the community can come together.”
On Valentine’s Day, as the winter storm approached the Houston area, Nguyen and the children watched Titanic. Olivia hates the movie after reading a few things about it online. Nguyen wanted to prove that it was a “wonderful” movie.
They had to stop the film a few times while Edison questioned the plot holes that Nguyen had never thought of.
And why is a ship managed in one way or another?
“Can you just watch it?” Nguyen remembers how his sisters asked back, “Can we just watch?”
He refrained from investigating too much, Nguyen said, and they finished watching. Everyone loved the movie.
The next day, Le, without strength since waking up, passed early. She spent the day with the children and Nguyen at home, who still had strength.
Around 17:00 they also lost power there.
“I told everyone they should keep their battery power in their devices,” Nguyen said. “We wanted a way to communicate.”
Olivia planned a Zoom call with friends from a summer camp after which she went to New York State.
Can she use her battery power, she begs.
Yes, Nguyen told her.
They burned the fireplace to stay warm and hung out with each other and spent quality time.
Time, Nguyen said, they appreciate it.
As hours passed and the children tried to teach their grandmother a card game, everyone got tired.
Eventually they all went to sleep.