Still grieving after the Christmas Day fire that took the lives of his three daughters, Matthew Badger has given his first interview to Good Morning America to promote a fund in their honor which raises money for art programs in public schools. Badger explained, "Out of the darkness came this [fund]."
Badger, divorced from fashion executive wife Madonna Badger, had 7-year-old twins Sarah and Grace and their 9-year-old sister Lily with him in the week leading up to Christmas. He said, "It was dancing. We had our own Christmas tree and that photograph was when we had opened our presents they were all very happy." The children then went to their mother's Stamford, Connecticut home, to celebrate the holiday with her, her boyfriend and contractor Michael Borcina, and their maternal grandparents, Lomer and Pauline Johnson. But in the middle of the night, a fire ravaged the under-renovation Victorian, killing the girls and the Johnsons.
Investigators say that Borcina emptied still-smoldering embers from a fire into a bag and placed the bag in the mudroom or in a trash enclosure; later, the embers triggered fire. (It's believed the embers were removed so the girls would not worry about Santa Claus being injured when coming down the chimney.) By the time firefighters were called to the house, they could only rescue Madonna Badger and Borcina. The decimated house was later demolished and a criminal probe continues.
Matthew Badger told GMA he's been in shock about the fire and apparent circumstances leading to it, "It was very difficult to see … Why did this happen? I mean, it doesn't make any sense. And I'd just seen them the day before." (He may sue over the fire.) However, he's been happy to work on the Lily Sarah Grace Fund, explaining, "The monument in some ways is very spiritual. It's also [how] I found a place of tremendous healing for me. When I work on it, I'm surrounded by love of friends, who gather and talk about how we can make this charity grow. My journey … has been remarkable, and in some ways has refocused my life for, I would say, a greater purpose."
People can donate money directly to Donors Choose programs related to arts in underfunded schools when they visit the Lily Sarah Grace Fund. The site explains, "We believe that teaching is more meaningful when teachers draw on their own passions and the passions of students when drawing up their lesson plans-be it staging a play to understand the American Revolution, using cooking to practice fractions or knitting to do addition, or helping kids to make a stop-motion movie to illustrate the water cycle. The possibilities are just endless."
And there are heartbreaking videos of Lily, Sarah and Grace:
