A woman is devastated by the death of her father in the fire at their childhood home, she who had visited him just hours before the tragedy. She is still haunted by the last words he spoke before leaving.
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“The first week was really difficult. The afternoon before his death I was at his house and when I left he threw me something that he was in no hurry to die,” said France Palin, who agreed with the interview with the Journal.
The 53-year-old had no idea that her father’s fate would take such a tragic turn when she closed the door of the family home on February 6.
Just after 8 p.m., a few hours after he left, firefighters tried to get into the burning house, but the smoke was too thick.
A fatal siesta
“When my father took his nap, he would take sleeping pills. I think that’s why he couldn’t leave the house. He died from inhaling too much smoke,” Ms Palin said.
During their deployment, firefighters found the victim, Gilles Palin, on the 1st floor of the apartment building. He was later found dead on the way to the hospital.
“What I can say about my father is that he was a bon vivant. He always had someone to visit him. On Monday it was his best friend with whom he had already hit 400 strokes! We took turns on the other days,” says France Palin, pointing out that her father traveled with a walker and didn’t go out much.
double sadness
In addition to the loss of her last parent, Mrs Palin has had to mourn the loss of the family home where she spent much of her life.
“My mother died when I was little and my father took care of the farm. With my sister, it was our grandmother who raised us in this house,” she explains.
Due to the extent of the fire, the house had to be demolished to put out the flames. Today all that remains is a pile of ruins and ash.
“It’s difficult. We couldn’t recover memories, but who knows, maybe by cleaning up the remains we’ll find something,” France Palin still hopes.
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