Jessica and Matthew Graham, parents of a family of 7 tested positive after their home were demolished by the storm on Sept. 7.
The Graham's family is financially struggling throughout the pandemic with their young five children. Their Malden house and barn which was built in 1911 was burned to the ground and became a total loss after the storm hit powerfully. Luckily, through home insurance, the family was able to stay at a hotel with no additional cost. Matthew Graham stated he started with a cough at first thinking it was the effect of a cloudy smoke. Later, it came down as flu-like symptoms. Jessica Graham stated she was babysitting their 10-year-old Claudia, 7-year-old twins Zoe and Adele, and 5-year-old Darius when she was affected by coronavirus. The family mentioned they might've caught the coronavirus a week before the storm crashed into their home.
Graham's family stated, "The first two weeks were 'a haze' of trying to feed the kids. All the kids have had their moments of 'freaking out'. For the first week and half, he was giving them 'pep talks' to eat, because they'd lose their appetites."
"It kind of kills your heart to see her hurting like that. I just held her for a while and explained to her that finding the smallest space isn't going to make her feel safe, because what she wants is the safety of home, and home is gone. Sleeping in a corner on the floor isn't going to fix that. It took a while, but she did come to sleep on my bed."
Matthew stated he has a hard time staying out of bed for more than a few minutes. Even through trials and tribulations, the family of 7 continued to fill themselves with joy and hope because of their faith in God. Accordingly, the two couples met at a local church before their marriage. The couple mentioned their faith is 'the most important thing'.
"Even though we lost everything, we still have everything. We were healthy. We will probably be healthy again. It's just keeping that perspective." The family of 7 shares a GoFundMe page that raised close to $52,000.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-graham-family-lost-everything-in-a-wildfire
