A Texas family lost their dad to Covid-19 three weeks ago. Now they lost their home to a fire while trying to stay warm
(CNN)Stephanie Rubio and her three children have had their heart broken twice in three weeks.
Stephanie's husband, Robert, died from Covid-19 complications on January 28 after spending eight days in the hospital.
On Tuesday, the family lost their home, filled with his memories, to a fire while trying to stay warm in Texas.
With winter storms and freezing temperatures creating chaos and confusion across the state this week, thousands of families have been forced to live without power, heat and water, including the Rubio family.
The family lives in Fort Davis, Texas, about 150 miles east of Odessa. They have been without power since Monday around 4 a.m.
To
stay warm, Stephanie and her children have been relying on firewood to
fuel the fireplace. But by Tuesday afternoon they were almost out.
Stephanie and her youngest son, Levi, 15, braved the road conditions and
went to pick up firewood at a corner shop.
From
the shop's parking lot, Stephanie said she could see smoke clouds in
the distance and pointed them out to Levi, who had just received a phone
call from a friend to say that it was their home that had caught fire.
Stephanie Rubio could see smoke from the shop nearby when she and her son Levi went to buy more firewood to keep warm.
At home, Stephanie's oldest child, Allison, 22, was taking a nap when Blake,16, alerted her to the growing smoke.
"We
rushed up there to our house and it was just covered in smoke already,"
Stephanie said. "My daughter ran out with a picture of her dad that we
got from the funeral home, with no shoes or anything."
The
fire department has not been able to determine the official cause of
the fire yet, according to Stephanie, but they have deemed the home a
total loss.
They never got to say goodbye
Stephanie
said she and Robert built their home in Fort Davis and filled it with
love and fond memories during a 20-year relationship.
From left, Levi, Robert, Stephanie, Blake and Allison Rubio.
Stephanie's
high school-aged kids had to take a Covid-19 test to return to
in-person learning in January. That's when Levi tested positive and
stayed home to recover for two weeks. Shortly after Levi's positive
test, Blake and Robert contracted the virus, too.
"We
were all home, the kids isolated themselves in their rooms, but when
you're all home together, it's hard," Stephanie said. "Robert was the
last one to get Covid from our home and he just couldn't take it...he
had the Covid pneumonia part."
"We
always wore a mask, kept hand sanitizer with us. We did everything we
were supposed to do," she said. "It's just something that happened and
we can't take it back."
Stephanie
took Robert to the hospital on January 19 and staff admitted him,
telling her that he'd most likely be kept overnight to monitor his
oxygen levels.
"Before
I knew it, they were flying him to another hospital in Midland, Texas,
and he just had a really bad night and that Thursday he passed,"
Stephanie said. "His heart couldn't take it and he had heart failure."
Robert was also borderline diabetic, she said.
"He
kept telling us, 'I'm fine, I'm fine,' but we were worried," Stephanie
said. "The last thing he said was, 'we got this, we got this,' and I
kept saying, 'OK, you've got this,' but he just never came back."
Robert was a huge Dallas Cowboys fan and enjoyed volunteering with youth baseball and basketball.
"He
was just a loving person, a wonderful person," Stephanie said. "The
smile on his face...Oh God the smile on his face was just enormous."
Because
Robert was on oxygen, verbal communication proved to be quite difficult
for him. In his final days, Stephanie said he had a cough so bad it
would nearly take his breath away, so the couple would exchange text
messages instead.
"We're
a strong family and we're doing good," Stephanie said. "Well, we were
doing good and then of course the fire had just happened on Tuesday, and
it just broke our heart again. You know, we lost the home that had all
of our memories with him in it."
Picking up the pieces
Thanks to the support from the community and family and friends close by, Stephanie said her family has been pushing forward.
The
Rubio family has been staying in a vacant, 3-bedroom apartment that
belongs to a community member nearby. Electricity was restored at that
residence Wednesday afternoon.
Vanessa Kinkade, Robert's cousin, created a GoFundMe
to help the family take steps to rebuild their lives. On Twitter she
said that Robert was someone who "loved everyone fiercely. Especially
his wife and children."
"I'm asking for donations to help this family recover a small amount of what they lost," she wrote. "Nothing will bring their husband and father back. But we can all make an attempt to put some joy back in their hearts."
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