KINGSVILLE, Ohio — The air was cold, and the mood was somber in Kingsville as an early Monday morning house fire killed a pregnant woman and her two children.
RELATED: 4 dead in Ashtabula County house fire
According to the Kingsville Township Fire Department, it was just before 5 a.m. when firefighters were dispatched to a home on South Wright Street.
The home was engulfed in flames, but contained with no extension.
Inside the home were 24-year-old Isabella Georskey and her two daughters, 1-year-old Celeste and 7-year-old Brooklynn. Georskey was also six months pregnant.
"Nobody should have to ever bury their child, and for these guys, they're babies themselves and it breaks my heart immeasurably that they have to go through this," Georskey's mom, Tiffine Sizemore, told me.
On Wednesday, I sat down with Sizemore as well as the father of Brooklynn, Alex Ortiz and Celeste's dad and the fiancé of Georskey, Michael Long.
The three of them are stuck between feeling anger, brain fog, and sadness.
"Why? Why them? Why now? Just why?," Sizemore asked with tears in her eyes.
Rather than just hearing about the heartbreak over their loss, we wanted to know what these three meant to their families.
"Brooklynn was grandma's 'Stinky P' as I called her. She hated it. She used to say, 'Grandma, don't call me that in front of my friends!' I used to tell her she'll be that forever and the day she gets married, she'll still be grandma's 'Stinky P,'" Sizemore said.
Brooklynn was an avid drawer and quite the storyteller, according to Sizemore.
"We'd watch YouTube videos, learn how to draw because I'm not the best artist, so we were trying to learn together. She would always paint and would just make a mess of everything," Ortiz said.
Ortiz told me his life changed for the better when Brooklynn was born.
"My grandma, she passed away and it was really hard on the family, but then I got the news that I was gonna have Brooklynn and that just changed everything for me and my family. She was everything to me," he explained.
"Celeste was my little peanut. She was just coming into her own, getting her own personality and learning how to navigate that little bit of red hair she was gonna get. Grandma's hair used to be red," Sizemore added.
Celeste was born on Christmas Eve 2023.
Long called her a blessing.
"She was just such an amazing little baby. She had so much personality, but she was coming into it at the same time. She had the attitude of, I don't even know. I can't even explain it," Long shared.
And then there was Georskey.
Georskey was Sizemore's only daughter and the youngest of her three children.
"Isabella, she was such a great mom. I just have no words for this. She was an amazing mom," Long said.
Georskey and Long didn't know the gender of their baby on the way, as Long explained, they wanted to wait.
"We weren't really planning, but it happened and we were ready to embrace it. I mean, we already did embrace it and then we were excited. We were waiting to hold off on the gender until later because we didn't wanna know. We never even got to figure that out," Long said.
There are loads of memories these families have of Georskey, Celeste, and Brooklynn. I asked if there was any one memory in particular that constantly plays on repeat for them.
"Probably when her sister (Celeste) first started walking and she (Brooklynn) was so excited, started jumping around with her and just her face of how happy she was that she was helping her sister walk," Long recalled.
Ortiz added, "When I was in the living room and I saw [Brooklynn] come out and it was like my whole life just changed."
Sizemore explained there isn't just one memory that sticks out to her, as every past time she has with her granddaughters and daughter is special in its own way.
"It doesn't seem real, like I refuse to believe that it's real. The more time that passes, it's just more and more real," Ortiz said.
Sizemore said she feels as if it's one long nightmare that she can't wake up from.
But even in the midst of what the family said feels like hell, there are subtle reminders that Georskey, Celeste, and Brooklynn are still here with the family.
"I got in my car today and Brooklynn's sunglasses were in the little thing with mine. She had a pair for every day of the week in my car. The baby's bear that she just got for Easter is in the back seat of my car and the car seat is in my car still. Little things," Sizemore said.
As the Ashtabula County Coroner's Office and the Ohio State Fire Marshal investigate, the family continues planning funeral arrangements.
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"It's just unfathomable how many people have, like you said, just come out of the woodworks and supported us that don't even know us. It would take me forever to thank everybody individually," Long told me.
Anyone interested can also donate directly to the family's funeral home: Ducro Services, Inc. The Funeral Embalmer's email is nesbitts@ducro.com, and the Funeral Director's email is jpducro@ducro.com.
There will be a candlelight vigil honoring those lost on Friday at the Kingsville Elementary School from 6 to 7 p.m.
