Jackie Pham Nguyen and her three children, Olivia, 11, Edison, 8, and Colette, 5, affectionately nicknamed Coco by their family, still had power and were happy to have more time with their Ba Ngoai, meaning maternal grandmother in Vietnamese .
“We thought we were very lucky because we still had strength until the early evening,” said Nguyen.
When the electricity ran out a few hours later, the family crouched down, lit the fireplace and played board games and cards, she said.
The children tried to teach their grandmother some card games and the family was tired by 9:30 pm.
“I put my kids to bed and, in fact, the next thing I know is that I’m in the hospital,” Nguyen told CNN. “A few hours later, the fireman and the policeman arrived and said that no one else had survived.”
The cause of the fire may never be known
Nguyen doesn’t fully remember what happened, she said, but she remembers being on her first floor, where her room is, and not being able to go up to the children’s room. She screamed for her children.
“I was standing there screaming and screaming and shouting their names, waiting for them to get out of their rooms and basically jump so we could get out,” she said. “I just remember feeling like it was so dark and I can still hear everything popping around me.”
Although Nguyen does not remember much of that night, Doug Adolph, a spokesman for the city of Sugar Land, told CNN that the mother of three “had to be physically prevented from returning home”.
He said it took an hour or more to get the fire fully under control. The fire department arrived around 2 am on Tuesday.
“The family posted on social media that they were trying to warm up using a fireplace in the house,” said Adolph, adding that the cause of the fire has not yet been determined and may never be.
“We can’t say for sure what caused the fire. We just don’t know yet,” he explained. “It is possible that the investigation will never identify an exact cause.”
Adolph said the neighborhood had been without power for at least eight hours.
While Nguyen suffered burns on her hands, she says the loss of her children and her mother is immeasurable.
“My heart is broken,” she said, pausing to capture her thoughts. “I will never be the same.”
“I am in a tactical crisis mode now and I am really focused on all the final preparations because this is the last type of thing I will do for my children,” said Nguyen.
‘Incredible little humans’
When Nguyen talks about his children, his stories about his great personalities in small bodies come to life.
“My children were phenomenal, incredible and tough humans,” she said of her three children.
Olivia and Coco reportedly celebrated consecutive birthdays next month, on March 27 and 28. All three children attended the Catholic Church in St. Laurence.
“Colette is just a little fire cracker and she has a lot of charisma,” said Nguyen. “She too, at the age of five, had that level of confidence. She was never afraid, totally unapologetic, she was not intimidated.”
Coco loved to dance and make TikTok videos. She loved Taylor Swift and Shawn Mendes and wanted to be the cheerleader and class president. She looked more like a teenager than a child who would soon be six, her mother said.
She was also very affectionate. “I knew she was my last child, but … she was so affectionate and I, you know, I realized, like, every minute that I could understand because I knew … those moments are so fleeting,” Nguyen said .
Olivia had a sarcastic sense of humor that got drier when she entered high school.
“She was a child, but no. She was so mature and so much ahead of her peers,” said Nguyen of his eldest son.
She loved skiing, traveled with her mother every year since she was seven years old. Olivia and her mother made cinnamon rolls for Santa every year, with the idea that he ate enough cookies in other houses and would remember his home because of his goodies.
The middle and only boy, Edison, 8, was a “sweet boy” and an artist. He was extremely interested in modern art and architecture.
“He had a deep appreciation for any visual aesthetics,” said Nguyen. “So kind and so thoughtful and so thoughtful … you wouldn’t think an eight-year-old had that level of depth.”
Edison was moderately autistic and very active, Nguyen told CNN, adding that he started running with his mother last year.
“You just spent a minute with him, you knew how hot he was and that everything was coming from a kind place.”
The grandmother who gave everything
His grandmother, Le, always took care of them, leaving them and picking them up at school and in activities, to help Nguyen achieve his professional goals working with finance.
A refugee from Vietnam, Le arrived in Kansas with nothing, and Nguyen credits her mother with the sacrifice to give her a better life.
“My parents did everything for their children, as, as immigrants, to come to this country and then that love they gave me was ten times greater when it came to grandchildren,” said Nguyen.
She added: “I think grandmothers are unsung heroes and untold stories.”
Nguyen’s mother had never spent the night at her home, even though she was riding through Hurricane Harvey in her own home. But, she said, “for some reason that day she decided to come.”
“I just feel like she was always dragging the kids around too, so maybe that was her last kind of thing, and you know, ubering the kids to heaven,” said Nguyen.
Honoring children
Knowing that these questions may never be answered, Nguyen said he will move forward in a way that will honor his children and his memory properly.
“Obviously, I’m sorry to lose them,” Nguyen told CNN. “But I feel that it is, honestly, a tragic loss to the world that these children cannot enjoy living up to their potential and contributing to society in the way that they should.”
“I want to do something lasting for them,” said Nguyen. “I really want to be thoughtful about it, because I want it to be long-lasting and meaningful … I owe it to everyone’s support and their intentions not to rush into how these resources are used.”