Triangle family opens their home to mom, daughter from Puerto Rico
For the past month,Inara Rullan and her mother, Idamis Colero, have been living with the Freeman family in Chapel Hill.
The Triangle family already had a full house with five kids, two parents, two snakes and two dogs. But they opened their doors to Inara, 9, and her mom after the two fled from hurricane ravaged Puerto Rico.
"It's just another kid in the house and another mom in the house," said Stephanie Freeman. "We all just kind of do family stuff."
It is hard to believe they were all strangers at the beginning of December.
Colero and her daughter left their home because it has been without water and electricity for 60 days in the wake of destruction left by Hurricane Maria.
"I thought I was living in a post-apocalyptic situation," Colero said. "It's like you survive one day and you worry about the next."
She didn't see a way it would get better, so she looked into relocating to the mainland U.S., exploring opportunities via social media.
"Facebook," Freeman said through laughter when asked how she met the Triangle family.
A charity group on the site was looking for people who would be willing to host families from Puerto Rico.
"I started talking to a guy from the charity place and was like, 'I heard you were looking for a place for some people and we have a place for some people'," Freeman said.
"I'm very emotional so I just started crying," Colero said.
Shortly after a brief text conversation, the mother, daughter and their four cats were on their way to Chapel Hill. Inara insisted that all four cats had to come along for the journey. She is now in school, which is something she couldn't do while in Puerto Rico. Her mother is busy every day looking for work as a teacher.
It's a fresh start, the result of unusual kindness from a family willing to open their home to hurricane refugees.
"I was like these people are too good to be true. like I honestly didn't believe they existed until I met them," Colero said.
The Freemans say they have received assistance from neighbors and friends who have pitched in to donate money, clothes and a car to Rullan and her daughter.
