Woman battling cancer saves father-in-law from burning home in Colorado

Days after coming home from cancer surgery, she found the strength to save her father-in-law from a house fire.

LAFAYETTE, Colo. (KDVR) — Days after coming home from cancer surgery, a Colorado woman found the strength to save her father-in-law from a house fire.

Back in December, a trip to the doctor for pain ended with a pancreatic cancer diagnosis for Kathy Rodriguez. The wife of nearly 40 years, mother of two and grandmother of four underwent surgery.

Five days after getting released from the hospital post-operation, their house — the one her husband, Robert, grew up in — went up in flames in the middle of the night. 

"I was laying on the couch and I saw a glow hit my face, a huge, huge glow,” Robert said. "It looked like the sun was sitting right on the patio, and it was an inferno."

Instead of taking her 1 a.m. dose of post-operation pain medication, Kathy sprung into action.

“I said, 'Honey, fire, fire!’ And she snapped up off that chair, like if she was healthy,” Robert said.

Kathy ran down two flights of stairs to save her father-in-law, who suffers from dementia.

“She was a warrior to hit the basement and to wake him up, no shoes, no clothes,” Robert said. 

Kathy told Nexstar's KDVR she didn’t think twice about getting up and saving her loved one. 

“You don’t think, you do,” Kathy said. “It's not like, hmm, it's going to hurt, maybe I shouldn't do this. It's not like that.”

Kathy is now back in the hospital recovering from a bleed. She was moved out of the intensive care unit on Tuesday and is determined to get back to health and back to her grandson’s athletic games.

“I don't even know what tomorrow is going to bring. I don't even have a pair of shoes, but you still just put your foot in front of the other,” Kathy said. 

The couple said their home, which is a total loss, used to be the designated celebration spot. They want to rebuild and celebrate their grandson’s graduation in the same spot they celebrated their own and their children’s.

“In my heart and the memories on this property, we can bring it back to life and have a new future or continue on with our journey,” Robert said.

“Kathy is my rock. She's my stone. She's my boulder. She's my mountain. I don't know what I could do without her," he said. "We have a lot left in our future.” 

Community members have made a GoFundMe to help the family during this time.

A symbol of love survives the fire

The couple said the outpouring of support from the community restores their faith in the kindness of others, and they are beyond touched. 

While they lost almost everything, one item survived the fire: a thimble that Kathy gave Robert decades ago as a symbol of love. 

“I gave it to him about 30 years ago when we watched 'Hook,' and Tinkerbell gives Peter Pan a kiss, but it's a thimble,” Kathy said. "He always has his kiss with him."

"I take it out of my pocket, put it on my nightstand every evening and go to sleep, and son of a gun, I walked in that house a day after the fire, the thimble was still sitting on the nightstand,” Robert said. "Through all the water and all the pressure of everything, and the wind was blowing through the windows, it was still sitting there."