MEXICO – Veronica Dennis is still debating whether to sell, donate or display the image some believe to be of the Virgin Mary that appeared in her home following a fire a week ago.
“I first thought I’d preserve it,” she said on Tuesday. “But I don’t know how.”
A person from Dixfield has offered her $2,500 for the panel showing the outline. Dennis has declined.
“I don’t want people to think I’m going to try to make a fortune off it. It’s not my intention to put it on eBay,” she said.
No one has made an offer on the house, either, and that’s just the way she wants it.
“I plan to rebuild,” she said.
But for the next four to six months, she and her family will live in a mobile home expected to be set up on her Burton Street property.
Chet Tukey, representing Pope Housing of Kingston, N.H., was making arrangements Tuesday for the mobile home to be moved to the site by the end of the week.
Dennis is pleased that she will be able to get her family and the family pets back together again. She and daughters, Tara, 14, and Tausha, 22, and Tausha’s boyfriend, Keith Sinclair, along with two dogs and a cat will move into the mobile home. The family has been living with Rumford resident Meggan White since the fire. The cat has been seen near the house, but hasn’t been caught, and the husky and pit bull are staying at McKennel’s Animal Adoption Agency in Rumford.
“Maybe I’ll sell the image because someone else might be able to do something with it,” she said.
Emotionally, everything has been overwhelming, said the home health aide.
“The fire, then all the other publicity on top of it,” she said.
Daughter Tara said she believed the family would be OK because the image appeared.
“My friends at school are freaked out about it and think we’ve been so brave after all that has happened,” said the eighth-grader.
Insurance adjusters estimated $100,000 damage to the home they valued at $150,000.
The panel on which the image appeared was taken down and stored in a safe place, said Dennis. She said she has received dozens of telephone calls, mostly from friends and family members, about the image.
The fire began Sunday morning, Jan. 15, when a space heater in her daughter Tausha’s bedroom ignited a bed and a nearby dog bed.
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