Survivor of Christmas fire wonders why she lived

STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) — In the year since her three daughters and her parents died in a house fire, Madonna Badger wonders why she survived.

Badger, a New York advertising executive until the Christmas Day 2011 fire in Stamford, made it through the funerals for her children and parents. But the Hearst Connecticut Media Group reports that she then disintegrated.

Her hair turned gray and fell out in clumps. She waved a fistful of pills in the air and threatened to swallow them.

In February, Badger traveled to Little Rock, Ark., to stay with a friend from their college days. The only requirement, she says, was that she promised to not commit suicide.

"I don't know why I survived," she says. "I told everyone I was going to kill myself."

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Information from: The Advocate