It’s hard to be in the holiday spirit for Demika Pinson, but she’s trying to stay strong for her children.
Demika Pinson is OK. A year ago, a Christmas Day fire engulfed Pinson’s house and claimed the lives of two of her sons. Two of her other children were badly burned and spent time in the hospital. This time of year isn’t easy, she said. It’s hard to be in the holiday spirit when it’s a reminder of who she lost, but she’s trying to stay strong for her children. “We just got a Christmas tree,” Pinson said. “I’m not really in the Christmas spirit, but then I keep on thinking, ‘Demika, you still have to do stuff because you still have kids that are here,’ and they look forward to this.” On Dec.25,2020, Pinson woke up to flames. She grabbed her then-2-year-old daughter Di’Yoir Prince and jumped out the second-story window of her house. She saw Delilah and Darius Wheeler also stumbled out of the smoke-filled house, but 7-year-old De’Lon Wheeler and 6-year-old Damarion Wheeler weren’t with them. Pinson said she started shattering the front windows to save her two boys, screaming and injuring herself in the process, but the flames only grew larger and they didn’t make it out. “Heaven gained two wonderful boys and left me here baffled,” Pinson wrote at their funeral in January. “It’s hard to deal. The pain behind this is deep and doesn’t seem real. Forever in my heart, no time soon will this wound heal.” Delilah and Darius, now 9 and 11, suffered serious burns that still affect their day-to-day life.
