First She Lost Her Husband, Then Their Home

My name is Amy, and my grandmother Shirley Malinowsky has experienced an incredible amount of heartbreak and loss over the last 13 months. In January of last year, we lost my grandfather, her husband of 62 years, suddenly. His caretaker of the past few years as his health declined, his loss was significant after spending their entire adult lives together.

They purchased 239 Fitch Hill Rd in Uncasville just a year after they got married. All 3 of their children grew up in that house, as well as my brother and myself at various points in our lives. My grandfather built an addition onto that house to serve as the master suite, with his own two hands. The very master suite and attic space that caught fire around 1am on Saturday, February 4th, completely unbeknownst to my grandmother.

Gram had been awake all night, fearful of pipes bursting on the coldest night of the winter this year, sleep-deprived and anxious, when around 6am pounding on her door startled her. Jamie Knighton, an off-duty fire dispatcher had just finished her shift and was driving by when she saw smoke and flames coming from the roof of the house. She, and another passerby named Eric Walls, on his way to work at Corrigan Correctional Institute, forced my grandmother from her home, to the safety of a police car.

It took 3 minutes for fire and rescue to arrive. The 3 longest minutes of Gram's life, as she watched the only thing she had left of my grandfather burn.

9 local fire departments assisted with putting out the blaze, which ended up destroying the kitchen, entire addition and attic space; but somehow, miraculously, spared the very room that Gram spent 90% of her life in. The Fire Marshal made it very clear to us just how lucky we were to still have Gram here with us.

The house will need a complete rebuilding, which insurance will cover - hopefully. We don't anticipate being able to take any action on rebuilding for quite some time, and due to inflation, everything is so very expensive right now.

We're hoping to accrue some savings for Gram, to help transition her to living with my brother and his family for the foreseeable future, to assist with refurnishing the house once rebuilt, to allow someone who's lost so much to breathe a bit easier with some help from her community.

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