Un­fore­seen mis­for­tune can se­vere­ly dis­rupt even the most care­ful­ly laid plans. This is what hap­pened to Mo­hanie Sankar and her fam­i­ly when a fire con­sumed their Bhimul Trace, San Fran­cique home just two months af­ter her hus­band’s death.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, Sankar said her beloved hus­band Jagdis died on March 19 af­ter de­vel­op­ing pneu­mo­nia and a skin in­fec­tion. He was on­ly 58.

Af­ter his death, Sankar said their lives took a down­ward turn.

On May 10, their home went up in flames, tak­ing every­thing with it. With no in­come and no home, Sankar said they are now strug­gling to sur­vive.

“Be­fore my hus­band died, we all lived as one fam­i­ly. But now we all live sep­a­rate­ly. Imag­ine for Moth­er’s Day I could not have all of them with me,” she said.

The mem­o­ries of her six-mem­ber fam­i­ly to­geth­er still fill her with long­ing.

“We used to love watch­ing TV and eat­ing snacks,” she rem­i­nisced.

She re­called how Jagdis al­ways pri­ori­tised fam­i­ly.

“He did not have the best fam­i­ly life grow­ing up so he tried to do what was best for us, es­pe­cial­ly his chil­dren,” she re­called.

Sankar said apart from los­ing their home, the fire de­stroyed her son Ganesh’s car, and with­out it, he could not find work.

“Sud­den­ly, every­thing changed. We went from be­ing com­fort­able to hav­ing noth­ing. My chil­dren were un­able to work for a while be­cause it was very trau­ma­tis­ing,” she added.

Re­call­ing the lessons from her hus­band, Sankar said she fought to keep the fam­i­ly to­geth­er.

“Every day I would think of Jagdis. He worked hard for my four chil­dren and me. When we were in our 20s, we built a flat house with con­crete and board. We built it our­selves. He used to work at the Min­istry of Labour,” she added.

How­ev­er, as the days went in­to weeks fol­low­ing the fire, Sankar be­gan search­ing for help.

“We went all over, to every gov­ern­ment min­istry but no­body came to as­sist us,” she said.

Even worse, they nev­er got psy­cho­log­i­cal help for the loss of their home and mem­o­ries of the blaze have haunt­ed them.

“I re­mem­ber that day when the fire start­ed. We couldn’t es­cape; we had to scale over a gal­va­nized fence and run. My daugh­ter got in­jured on her hand and foot,” Sankar re­called.

She said the on­ly rel­a­tive who helped was the one giv­ing them lodg­ing but this, too, has a time­line.

“We had hoped that some­how we would be able to re­build, but now six months have passed, and we have no choice but to ask for help,” she said.

With time run­ning out, Sankar said her sons Ganesh, Ramesh and Satesh have start­ed con­struct­ing a shed where their home once stood.

“I don’t know how many of us will fit there un­til some­thing has to be done,” she said.

Sankar said each day feels like a bat­tle.

“When I wake up, all kinds of things run through my head. I just need to re­build a house, and my son needs trans­porta­tion to get to work.”

She not­ed, how­ev­er, that work is not an op­tion for her due to her health is­sues.

“I suf­fer from high blood pres­sure, and I have a mus­cle strain in my heart, so I can­not do any­thing stren­u­ous,” she said.

Each day, she wor­ries about their fu­ture.

“We are try­ing to stay here un­til some­thing is done,” she re­vealed.

Mean­while, Ganesh al­so plead­ed for help.

“Los­ing my ve­hi­cle in the fire was like los­ing my hands and feet. I had no mon­ey to trav­el to work, so the con­trac­tor start­ed to give me less work,” he said.

He added, “I don’t have a per­ma­nent job. My ve­hi­cle used to bring in some mon­ey be­cause I worked as a taxi dri­ver,” he said.

What trou­bles Ganesh most is that he has to re­pay a loan for a ve­hi­cle con­sumed by the fire.

“The in­sur­ance was third par­ty, so I didn’t re­ceive any­thing. I took a loan to pur­chase the ve­hi­cle, and the lit­tle mon­ey I earn is just enough to pro­vide for my fam­i­ly,” Ganesh said.

Say­ing that he is mul­ti-skilled, Ganesh added, “I can do con­struc­tion, I work with a con­trac­tor on ceil­ing work, and I can al­so do land­scap­ing. All I am ask­ing for is a per­ma­nent job so I can help us get back on our feet,” he said.

He ad­mit­ted that he of­ten feels lost.

“I wouldn’t wish this on my worst en­e­my. Life has been very hard since my fa­ther passed away.”

He de­scribed his fa­ther as a “cool and hum­ble man.”

“He nev­er told any­one any­thing. He would make jokes and help us as much as he could. He was a fam­i­ly-ori­ent­ed man. He used to tell me to step up and pro­vide for my moth­er and my sis­ter. He left me to be the man of the house. I re­mem­ber his words well,” Ganesh said.

He al­so ap­pealed to the pub­lic to help him find a job.

“If any­one needs work­ers, I am cur­rent­ly look­ing for a per­ma­nent job. All we want is a chance to re­build our lives,” he plead­ed.

Any­one want­i­ng to help can make do­na­tions to Re­pub­lic Bank, Pe­nal. Ac­count no: 500-743-691-931 or call 264-7210