Sunday Peters thought she was meeting Chief Neil Ricca of St. Tammany Fire District 1 to sign some routine papers Tuesday.

What she didn’t expect was firefighters who came bearing gifts.

“I thought, ‘what do these people want with me?’” she said as Ricca and several other members of his team pulled up to her Cleveland Avenue home in their official vehicles. “Y’all got me, that’s for sure.”

Edward and Sunday Peters stand with a basket of items donated anonymously by employees at a local company. (Staff Photo by Anne Lautzenheiser)

Ricca and his crew were there to deliver a basket full of food, toiletries and gift cards donated anonymously by staff members of a local company. The employees had contacted the fire department asking for the name of someone who might be in need this holiday season, and Ricca immediately thought of the Peters family.

Last month, fire consumed the trailer where Sunday and her husband, Edward, were staying with their twin sons, Edward Jr. and Erlin. The dwelling was uninsured, and the incident was the latest in a series of bad breaks for the family, who are still struggling to repair their hurricane-damaged home in Olde Towne Slidell.

They were staying in the trailer at 57425 Beech St. temporarily while the couple and their sons worked sporadically on their home. Sunday, who works at Southern Surgical Hospital, admitted she had disconnected the trailer’s smoke detector months ago after crickets got into the device and caused it to go off unexpectedly several times a day, driving her to distraction.

She said she usually left the TV on all night, and around 4:30 a.m. Nov. 19, she awoke abruptly to silence and thick, black smoke. The family rushed for the door, and within minutes, flames had engulfed the structure, along with everything in it.

“You all were probably really close to not coming out of that trailer,” said Ricca.

Ricca said he had talked with the couple’s neighbors and had been told on more than one occasion they were “good people.” Sunday said they all looked out for one another, and her nephews called their home “the soup kitchen” because of the big meals she cooked for anyone and everyone.

“One of my nephews called me, and he was just so upset. He cried, ‘oh no, the soup kitchen’s closed’,” she said with a big laugh.

Edward, a former truck driver, has been doing odd jobs since a neck injury forced him to quit driving long-distance hauls. His 18-wheeler was destroyed in Hurricane Katrina, however, just months after he took it off his insurance policy since he wasn’t driving much anymore.

A representative of the company that made the donation said the staff used to deliver meals to needy families at Thanksgiving in years past, but this is only the second year they have focused on an individual family.

“We do this instead of exchanging gifts amongst ourselves,” said the representative. “We have everything we need, so it makes more sense to help those who don’t.”

The Peters family has been staying with a relative in the area, and Ricca said the family has received more good news since their plight became public. Someone with connections to Northshore Disaster Recovery Inc., which has rebuilt over 1,000 homes throughout the area, contacted Chief Larry Hess, and it appears the family is eligible to receive assistance from the group in rebuilding their Cleveland Avenue home.

An account has also been set up at Hancock Bank in the name of Edward Mickey Peters for those wishing to make financial contributions.

Though Sunday admits the experiences of the last few years have brought her a great deal of stress, anxiety and occasional depression, Edward has managed to keep a big smile on his face.

“We’re alive, and it’s going to be all right,” he said. “Whoever did this, thank you and God bless you. It’s proof that you should never think that people don’t care.”