Woman who lost everything in house fire receives furniture donation

A woman who lost everything in a house fire on the 4th of July, received a generous donation from a local company and state lawmaker Monday. The gift will now help make her house a home. 

Patricia Chance, 54, has been living in an empty apartment since she lost her entire Sunnyside home two and a half months ago. 

On July 4, the place Patricia had called home for the last 33 years went up in flames. The fire destroyed everything she owned and even, killed her dog. Patricia was inside the house but managed to escape safely with the help of a neighbor. 

Ever since then, Patricia has been living in an apartment with no furniture. 

"This has been it. This is it. This is where I've been sitting. I come and sit by the window every day. As long as I have a roof on my head, I'm just blessed. And even more blessed with this," Patricia said. 

Texas State Representative Shawn Thierry has been helping Patricia recover ever since. 

"We hopped on social media. We just started reaching out and we asked people could they donate clothes and towels and toiletries and gift cards and the response was amazing. So every other week we've been checking on her and coming by making those kinds of deliveries," Thierry said.

Although Patricia had a roof over her head, she was sleeping on the floor for weeks before a mattress was donated to her recently.

On Monday, a truck load with $2,000 worth of brand new, living room and bedroom furniture arrived at Patricia's door step, surprising her. 

Without Patricia knowing, Thierry had reached out to Sam Zavary, the CEO and President of Exclusive Furniture to help make her new house, a home.  

"She'd already paid that rent and she doesn't have any more money. They took her out of the house with no clothes on really. So that's the least that we can do," Zavary said. 

The generous donation and kind gesture brought Patricia to tears. She could barely find the words to describe how she felt, all she could say was thank you.  

"I'm very emotional thanks to Ms. Thierry. She said she was going to do it and I was just waiting patiently," Patricia said. 

Patricia also just celebrated her 54th birthday last week and considers this one of the best gifts she's ever received.