Family trying to cope with loss of daughter
Fire claimed Kaylee Ramos, 12; surviving family members want to return to Freehold Borough
BY CLARE MARIE CELANO Staff Writer
FREEHOLD — Home means different things to different people. To the Ramos family of Freehold Borough, which lost a daughter and sister, Kaylee, 12, in a house fire on Feb. 2, 2009, home means the sounds and memories of the past and the possibility of a hopeful future.

Friends are now trying to help Kaylee’s mother, Gina Ramos, and Kaylee’s sisters, Lacey, 17, Julianne, 12, and Gracie, 3, return to the Court Street home the family loved. In the wake of the fire, the home sits damaged, burned and silent, devoid of the laughter and dreams the Ramos family enjoyed.

In a letter written to the News Transcript in October, Kaylee’s family sought to describe the feeling of “home.”

“Although the lights in the house at 64 Court St. are out in Freehold Borough and the innocent laughter has been silenced, it is still a home that we miss very much. Even in its irreparable state, our perception of home is even more apparent.”

The letter goes on to say that “even though the walls are now burned, what [lay] behind those walls was a family, is a family, Kaylee’s family.”

The letter was written to publicly thank the many people from the area who reached out and offered food, clothing, gift cards and other items to the family after the fire forced them from their home.

Stacey Berlin, a family friend, said the Ramos family hopes to return to the home on Court Street in time for the holiday season in 2010.

“Gina and her three daughters have struggled to move forward, ” Berlin said. “We are asking if any New Jersey companies can donate any supplies to help them to rebuild the home. Castle Windows has already come forward to donate windows.”