The community has rallied around a family of four that are still trying to pick-up the pieces after a fire tore through their home in downtown Windsor last week.
Windsor Fire and Rescue arrived around 2pm on Tuesday July 10 to find a home in the 400 block of Church St. near Park St. fully involved blaze.
That home was being rented by Danielle Gilliard and her seven-year-old son Dawson, two-year-old son Dallan, and seven-week-old baby boy Drayden. Luckily they weren't home at the time but arrived to find the commotion.
"I couldn't even watch, I just cried, it was everything," says Gilliard, who was standing outside as the house burned. "I've been on my own since I was 18 years old; all of that [stuff] is just gone."
Since then a GoFundMe page that's raised more than $1,245 of its $2,000 goal is there to help get the family back into a home of their own and fill it with the items lost in the fire.
Friends are loaning space to store donated furniture and other items, and local businesses are taking donations in her family’s name. The emotional 27 year old tells AM800 News it's hard to put her gratitude into words.
"I didn't realize how much support you have until something like this happens," says Gilliard. "There are people from Oshawa that set up donations and stuff for me and my boys and it's just amazing what people actually do when they come together."
Her eldest son's school is also getting in on the act, he lost his pet snake in the fire and Queen Victoria Public School is going to see about finding him a new slithering friend.
"Just so overwhelming, so many people that stepped together to help me and my family, me and my boys," she added.
Gilliard says she can't replace the memories they lost in the home, but she'll continue to search for somewhere her boys can make new ones.