NICHOLASVILLE, Ky. (LEX 18) — Linda Washburn opened her kitchen door Thanksgiving morning in Nicholasville and was immediately greeted by a wall of flames just feet away. The fire had already started to spread to the siding of her home.
The local fire department rushed to the residence in Nicholasville but could not rescue the man living inside her neighbor's home. He died.
The man who died was 66-year-old Carl French. Washburn said the man was disabled and rarely, if ever, came outside. Many neighbors didn't even know someone was living inside the one.
He and Washburn never spoke - what she did know came from the man's 87-year-old father, who would take care of him.
She didn't even know his name.
Despite all that, she calls him a good neighbor and shares that they had an unspoken bond. She could often hear the TV in his home and make out what shows he was watching.
"In some weird conceptual way, I felt connected," she said.
Her pull toward him is based in large part on the fact her father is also disabled. It's part of why she desperately wants people to remember him on this day of thanks.
"I'm thankful I'm safe, can still live in my house - repairs can be made, that house can be torn down and a new one built in its place and it be like nothing happened," she said, growing emotional as she described how she felt while preparing for the Thanksgiving meal. "I thought it doesn't feel right to be doing this. Somebody just died, and yet here I am, and the neighbors all go into their houses, and they're all going to have a nice Thanksgiving, and he is not."
