A Michigan family is left picking up the pieces after two nearly back-to-back devastating events. First, a house fire ravaged their home, destroying everything they owned. That would be enough, as they are already having to rebuild their lives. But unfortunately, that was only the first terrible thing that happened.
Weeks later, on Thanksgiving, the family matriarch lost her battle with cancer. She had been fighting the illness for over a year before her death. Now the family is figuring out how to move forward.
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The fire destroyed their home.
On November 2, 2024, Michael McAlinden and his three daughters went to visit his wife Christina at the hospital. Michael told The Detroit News that he had smelled something hot before they left the house. He believed it was coming from the dryer, so he unplugged it before the family left the house.
“About an hour later, a neighbor called me and said my house was on fire,” he said.
There was nothing anyone could have done.
When the first responders arrive around 12:34 p.m., there was already smoke billowing out of the home.
“Fire had traveled from the basement, through the ceiling up to the first floor, and then up to the second floor,” John G. Kosanke, director of public safety for Grosse Pointe Woods, where the family lived, told the outlet. It took about two hours for firefighters to put the fire out.
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Weeks later, his wife took a turn for the worse.
Three weeks after the fire, Christina McAlinden was moved into hospice care. She had been diagnosed with breast cancer in 2023. While the family was initially hopeful that she would beat the illness, it metastasized earlier this year. She was hospitalized “24/4,” according to her husband.
Christina died on Thanksgiving, five days after entering hospice. “It seems like a nightmare I can’t wake up from,” Michael said. His daughters, ages 15, 13 and 11, are doing as well as can be expected.
At Christina’s funeral, 11-year-old Molly spoke about how much she loved her mother. “I wouldn’t have changed her for the world,” the tween said.
The family has no choice but to rebuild.
According to Michael, it’ll be “at least a year” before the family can move back into a home. “Whenever I get a place, it will have to be refurnished because we lost everything except literally the clothes that were on our back,” he said.
After the fire, the family’s neighbors set up a GoFundMe to help them. Since then, it has made more than its $50,000 goal. “They’re good neighbors,” their next-door neighbor Liz Priebe, who started the fundraiser, said.
In the face of tragedy, their community has really stepped up.
“She was so proud of them and their athletics and drama through the school … It’s sad because they’re at an age when they really need their mom,” Priebe said of the girls and their mom.
Michael has been surprised by the amount of support the family has received between the fire and Christina’s death. “It’s overwhelming the amount of help and support the community has given us,” he said. “So many people want to help.”
