After loss of home, woman faces serious diagnosis

Delores Cook's daughter, dogs and goat mean everything to her.

They've been her comfort as life tried to knock her down - first with several deaths in the family, next with a diagnosis of a potentially fatal disease, and finally with the blaze that destroyed her Lake Jackson family home.

Though she said her doctor has given her only a short time to live, Cook said she is doing the best she can following the blaze in her family's 73-year-old log cabin on Sinclair Mill Road. Cook, 45, lived there for nearly a dec-ade. Her father bought the cabin and made it his home until his death in December.

Cook's 6-year-old daughter, Jeanna, lives there, too - along with the others who survived the fire - a pit bull, Jeanna's tiny puppy and Denise "Niesie" the goat. Firefighters were able to rescue the menagerie from the flames. Another pit bull named Sasha and cats Snowball and Houdini weren't so lucky.

All made up a family that has seen its share of hard times.

Cook was putting her daughter on the school bus Thursday morning when the flames broke out.

After getting her daughter on the bus, she ran back to the house to save her pets, but she couldn't get in.

The black smoke billowing from the doorway was too thick and the flames bursting through the windows were too high.

"You can imagine all the love she had to run back inside that burning house and try to go in to save those animals," said Belinda Barsotti, Cook's sister who lives in Dale City.

Barsotti said the pets often would hide under the bed when they got scared. That is what they did during the fire.

Denise the goat lives in a pen attached to the rear of the cabin.

Originally purchased and cared for by her late father, Denise loves to eat Pop-Tarts, said Cook.

"Sometimes you can bring her some cut up carrots or cucumbers and she will eat them…she is a very particu-lar animal," said Cook.

She said her daughter, the goat, her dogs and her puppy mean everything to her.

Cook considers them all family, and said she is working hard to keep them together in light of the recent trage-dies.

"They always say these things come in threes," said Gloria, Cook's 69-year-old mother. "First her father passes away on Dec. 9 of last year, then her house burns down and then her doctors tell her she is dying."

Cook said she is a longtime sufferer of osteomyelitis -- a bone disease caused by infection.

"There is a mild version of it and a chronic version of the disease. I have the chronic version," she said.

Her sister said Cook has now been diagnosed with multiple tumors in her brain, and that they are most likely inoper-able.

When asked about the diagnosis, Cook fought back tears and said it is hard to discuss.

"I mean, what can I say? You take the bitter with the sweet," said Cook. "What makes me sad is to think about the animals we lost and about losing the home that my father made," she said.

Cook's mother, who now lives in Maryland, said her husband loved the property so much because of the openness and the large lot that is over an acre.

Cook said she no longer knows where she will spend what could be her final days.

"A lot of people have asked if we need furniture, but where are we going to put it? A lot have asked if we need food, but where are we going to store it?" she said.

Insurance adjusters and contractors were at the fire-damaged home on Friday. She cautiously checked all of them for proper credentials and business licenses.

The Prince William Chapter of the Red Cross allowed Cook and her daughter to stay in a hotel room Thursday night, but she said her options now are limited.

She said she could go live with mother and sister in Maryland, but chooses not to because of one very bad mem-ory.

Her 36-year-old brother and 19-year-old nephew were shot and killed there in 2000, according Prince Georges County, Md., police spokesman.

"I forgive those people for what they did, but that doesn't mean I have to go there," Cook la-mented.

She said she knows her medical condition is bleak, but she would like to stay alive as long as she can for her daugh-ter, and long enough to restore the home her father loved so much.

"I've lost everything and now all I can do is try and keep my family together," Cook said.

Staff writer Uriah A. Kiser can be reached at 703-878-8065.