Chalan Pago mother picking up the pieces after fire

Jeanna Pangelinan is picking up the pieces of what's left of her Chalan Pago home after a fire turned everything she and her 2-month-old daughter had into rubble. "You think that in your home you are the safest, there is nothing that can go wrong in your home and then disaster strikes and all of a sudden you are standing in a pile of ashes," she told KUAM News.

The 32-year-old Pangelinan lit a candle on the night of August 10 while her power was out at her family home in the central village. When she went outside to grab her infant, she returned just 10 minutes later to find the home she was raised in up in flames. 

"A neighbor of mine came running to tell me my house was on fire," she recalled. "I did not really believe them because I was standing in my driveway and [there was] no fire and I did not really smell smoke or anything, but then he pulled me to the side of my house, and I saw that my bedroom was already completely engulfed in flames."

From the outside, the bright yellow paint covers what's inside.  Her daughters toys are still soaking, covered in ash. Pictures and books still stacked on the broken, burnt shelf. And a laundry basket filled with clothes, sitting on the bathroom floor. 

"It is very hard to see a culmination of your entire life turn into ashes. Literally, my entire life burned down," she stated. "Here I am trying to pick up the pieces."

Those pieces go back generations. The rooms on the first floor were spared by the flames, but there's deep water damage to the belongings in there, including important family documents. But she isn't left to pick up the pieces alone.

She's staying with her brother, and Jeanna says she's overwhelmed by the support online, where she started a GoFundMe campaign, and in-person.  She said humbly, "The support there is truly humbling because I was starting to lose hope in that CHamoru spirit of giving for the sake of giving. "

She says she's focused on one thing: survival. She's eager to get back to work after taking time off for her newborn. "But what really, honestly keeps me going is my little girl because I have to be strong for her. She's only two months old. She does not know what is going on. She does not know she lost everything that she had," she said.

"I have always strived to give her the best like that I could and I do want to do that for her. I do want to give her everything she could ever want or need. And I know that picking up the pieces here and moving forward that I have to be strong for her because she is too small to be strong for herself," Pangelinan said.

She's committed to rebuilding her childhood home - even if everything inside is gone, the foundation still stands. 

MAKE A DONATION TO JEANNA'S GOFUNDME CAMPAIGN