Tyler Davis
Henderson (N.C.) Daily Dispatch
(MCT)
Jun. 17—HENDERSON — One June 4, Catherine Cain was bedridden, recovering from an emergency stomach surgery at Durham’s Veterans Administration Hospital when she learned her home at 25 Sombrero Lane had burned to the ground.
Cain shared the home with her mother, Carolyn Smith, who is 74 and delivered the news via phone call. An ambulance returning from an unrelated call saw the house up in flames and rescued Smith.
“To be jerked out of your house without warning is pretty traumatic,” Cain said. “It’s going to take her a long time to get over this.”
Besides material possessions, Cain said she lost six of her 11 cats. The other five were sent to a shelter, since the house was destroyed. Cain ran a cat shelter out of the home and was in the process of finding homes for some of the cats before the fire.
“My cats were my babies,” Cain said. They acted as replacement children, and helped her cope with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Twenty years of service in the army and navy have prepared Cain for difficult situations, she said. Her emotions are “on the back burner,” however, and the situation “still hasn’t settled in yet.”
Cain and her mother are currently living out of a hotel, but funding is running low. The two are requesting that a member of the community lodge them until they can get back on their feet. She said she hasn’t found many resources otherwise for somebody in her position. There is also a Gofundme campaign set up for the two women at gofund.me/8b3dbbc6.
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