Madonna Badger, the woman who lost three daughters and her parents in a tragic Christmas fire at her home three years ago, shared some words of hope and compassion with the brave teenager who survived the shooting massacre of her family last week.
“No one knows how you feel right now but you,” she wrote in a letter delivered to 15-year-old Cassidy Stay and posted on the “Today” show’s website.
Reflecting on her own personal tragedy, Badger tells the courageous teen that she understands what she has been going through.
“So I don’t have any advice for you,” she said. “I can only tell you what happened to me.”
“My sadness is still so deep but it has changed,” she added. “I accept it more now.”
Badger said there was one thing that helped her make it through hard times after the Stamford, Connecticut, blaze.
“And here is the thing that saved me,” she said. “LOVE. The love of my children and my parents that is still in my heart.”
“So even though I said I didn’t want to give you advice … I will say just this one thing. Try to let the love all around you in … and little by little you will feel a tiny bit better,” Badger concluded.
Ronald Lee Haskell, the ex-husband of Stay’s aunt, stormed into the family’s home last Wednesday and fatally shot her parents and four siblings, who ranged in age from 4 to 13 years old.
Authorities say Stay survived by playing dead and called police to warn that Haskell was planning to go to her grandparents’ house next.
Cassidy Stay thanked first responders on Saturday while speaking to a large crowd at an elementary school in her hometown of Spring, Texas.
“I’ll be able to see them again one day,” she said, speaking of her slain relatives.
