PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — For Veronica Herbs, it’s her family pictures that bring her comfort, but now there is a picture she wishes wasn’t burned in her memory.
“I don’t know. I'm kind of devastated. It’s just a lifetime of stuff that— is gone,” she said.
Last week, a fire destroyed their family home near Lake Worth along Sun Up Lane. Their home was full of family members and pets when the fire occurred.
“Paul (grandfather), me, Joshua, my son and Malakhi and Sebastian, my grandsons. That was all of us, and two dogs and a cat,” Herbs said.
Now, their family home is unrecognizable.
“She’s yelling at me saying, 'there’s a fire.' I opened a door and the house filled with smoke immediately,” Paul Herbs recalled.
“It was flames, flames, eight fire trucks,” Veronica Herbs said.
She was able to help get her grandsons and her son with special needs out of the house.
“The fireman came up to me and asked if there was anyone else in the house, and then it hit me, my pets,” Paul Herb said.
That night the Herbs lost their two dogs and cat. To make matters worse, they don’t have home insurance. Veronica says after taking in their grandsons when their daughter died five years ago, things got even tighter on a fixed income.
“They want thousands of dollars for home insurance, and I kept saying, 'Well, when we save something,” said Veronica Herbs.
Now, even as their home sits empty and destroyed, their hearts are full knowing they have one another to lean on.
“All we have is family,” Veronica Herbs said.
Click here if you would like to donate to the family's GoFundMe page.