NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - A woman who has been battling cancer for two years is now facing another obstacle. Over the weekend, she lost all of her belongings when her home caught fire.
Irreplaceable family mementos blackened. A home built out of love, now a burned wood frame.
"My grandfather built that house with his two hands 62 years ago," said Christina McManama.
But that house is no longer a place Christina and her family can call home. A fire Saturday morning claimed her house.
"You couldn't see nothing, but black and red flames everywhere toward the back of the house. It was the worst thing I'd ever seen in my house."
Christina said since the fire was in the back of the house, the smoke alarms didn't go off. She and her two kids woke up to the smoke.
"By that time, it was too late. I mean, the whole back was engulfed, upstairs where I sleep the back wall where my bed was, the flames were coming through," said Christina.
She said the smoke was so dense, she almost lost her daughter.
"My daughter almost did not get out. She couldn't see and she was trying to come down the stairs and the smoke was so bad."
The fire wasn't the only thing to threaten Christina's life. In 2014, she was diagnosed with triple negative metastasis breast cancer and she said it's now spreading and her medicines burned in the fire.
"I want to be mad, I want to blame somebody, I want to scream and yell, but my children are with me. We have to be thankful for what we have. It might not be much, but we're alive," said Christina.
The family now lives in a hotel, but Thanksgiving night, they will gather together.
"Thanksgiving is going to go as planned. My family is still going to bond together. We're still going to be thankful for what we do have no matter what it is," said Christina.
