Lacking permanent housing and a week before Thanksgiving, family loses mom to cancer
DETROIT - One day after Thanksgiving, Robert Davis picked up the ashes of his wife, Kristine Daniels, who died last week from cancer.
Suffering from stage four liver cancer, the 50-year-old had battled the disease all summer - all with the uncertainty of housing hanging over her and her family.
Her husband Robert was with her until the end.
"She was the rock of this family, and...I'm sorry, there's words that I'm just trying to find that are just hard," Robert said. "She was our number one."
FOX 2 first talked to Robert over the summer, when his family was facing the threat of eviction from a landlord who had also become sick. While not angry with him, they had faced the threat of homelessness before, and always prevailed.
Without a permanent home and a week before Thanksgiving, family loses mom to cancer
A week before Thanksgiving, Robert Davis and his kids have lost the family's mom to a battle with cancer that extends back to the summer. Already struggling with finding a permanent place to live and consistent work, Kristine Davis finally succumbed to her cancer. Her family is now preparing a memorial service for her.
They did lock down another temporary location to live in Detroit after moving out of their Warren residence, but Daniels' continued to decline.
"When she was 13 years old, her brother shot her. It prevented her from receiving MRIs and standard treatments that these things would be able to be found with," said her son Bobby Davis Jr.. "By the time that test came to biopsy to get in there and pull tissues and figure out what it was, it was too late."
As the treatments and biopsies yielded a more inevitable conclusion that Daniels may not have long, her family shifted its focus to just spending as much time as they could with her. Last week, she died.
"I miss her like crazy. but I know what she wanted, we talked what she wanted me to do to keep this family together. Although at times it seems, 'can we?' 'are we going to be able to?' cause it's been rough," Robert said. "And I can see how families get torn apart in situations like this."
FOX 2 conducted an investigation into the lives of Robert Davis and Kristine Daniels over the summer, looking at how unsustainable housing can affect families in situations like them. You can read it here: Affordable Rent is disappearing in Michigan
"The holidays, the only way I can describe it is just empty," said Bobby.
While the family's savings have been depleted, Robert does hope to put on a memorial service for his wife. You can donate to it here: