RALEIGH, N.C. — Somewhere among the rubble and soot are the ashes of Betty Campbell's son, who died from COVID-19 last April.
She kept them in the corner of a shed she called home.
"It hurts, it really hurts, you know?" Campbell said. "Especially to know my child is in there burned up again."
Her child, Eric Dunlap, died a month after she could no longer afford the rent on her house.
At 76 years old and working two jobs, Campbell moved into the shed in her sister's yard because she has trouble getting up and down the stairs inside her sister's home.
On New Year's Eve, something sparked and an electrical fire consumed the shed. Everything was gone.
"I thank God because I could have been there asleep," Campbell said.
Firefighters from Raleigh Fire Station 11 responded to the fire, knocking down the flames. But the scene stayed in their minds.
"When I got back to the station, I kind of just couldn't get her off my mind," said Raleigh Fire Capt. Dena Ali.
The next day, Ali went to Facebook to help raise money for a gift card for Campbell. She thought she could raise a few hundred dollars to buy her clothes.
"Within minutes my phone started dinging," Ali said. "I got donations from all over the country. A friend who's a firefighter in Idaho sent a very large donation."
Within 24 hours, $4,000 came in for Campbell.
Victor Company, a nonprofit made up of minority Raleigh firefighters, worked with a company called Ameriglide to install a stair lift in her sister's house for free.
"There is a God that sits high and looks low," Campbell's sister said. "There's people who will come when you need them."
"This story — this little situation — just showed me that we're not as divided as we think," Ali said. "I think we really, truly share this common humanity that makes people want to look out for each other."