'Miracles' arrive for great-great-grandma college student burned out of Raleigh home

RALEIGH, NC (WTVD) -- Six days after the disastrous accidental fire that destroyed Shirley Fuller's and four other families' apartments last Thursday, Fuller remains at a nearby hotel.

It's been another non-stop day of looking for a new place to live. She and her friends-turned-fellow-fire victims had hopes of new apartments to replace the ones that burned down at Mission Capital Crossing Apartments - but those were dashed this week.

"(The apartment complex) told us that they didn't have anything," Fuller said.

But to hear Fuller tell it, the miracles keep coming. Even ones she's not asking for.

She lost nearly everything she owned - right down to her clothes and shoes.

Now, her church family has filled her hotel room with donated shoes and the closet with donated dresses and other basic wardrobe necessities.

"God's been good," Fuller said with a smile. "(The closet is) full, it's packed. But it's still more coming."

And the 70-year-old great-great-grandmother is still not giving up on her dreams to earn her second degree in two years from Wake Tech in May.

Her late-in-life academic aspiration inspired one Raleigh man to write a letter to ABC11, offering to replace all of Fuller's school supplies destroyed in the fire; notebooks, binders, pens, even a new laptop and printer.

Fuller was overcome with emotion when we shared the news.

"Oh, God," she said in tears. "That is so kind! That is what helps me get through school is the printer and the computer.

"Thank-you isn't going to enough for anything anyone has done for me. All I can say is I hope and pray that God blesses them for what they do for me."

While Fuller waits on word of a new apartment, a family friend has set up a GoFundMe page to help her get back on her feet.