A mum who was once named Teacher of the Year wrote “live each day like it’s your last” before she and her four children died in a house fire.
Bernadine “Birdie” Pruessner set her own house on fire in Ferguson, Missouri, according to the police. Her twins Ellie and Ivy Pruessner, nine, Jackson Spader, five, and Millie Spader, two, were all killed.
The police have said that the fire on Monday, February 19 was started on purpose.
Before this happened, Pruessner had posted online: “All my kids, peacefully sleeping in my bed…knowing they are loved so fiercely that I’d do absolutely anything for them. This is my favorite moment.”
She also shared, “live each day like it’s your last”.
The police found out that Bernadine had set a mattress on fire which caused the blaze. They also found a note where she said she wanted to end her life and her children’s lives.
Her lawyer, Nathan Cohen, said to the news that Pruessner was having a big fight with her ex-husband and an old boyfriend about the kids.
They were making life hard for her. Her family has made a GoFundMe page and explained: “She saw her children being used by their fathers as foils and she viewed the process and system for resolution of those claims as cumbersome, tedious and never ending.”
“Each day that Birdie would score a step forward, her ex-husband and or her former boyfriend would undertake an action to denigrate or undermine her role as a mother.”
The court papers say her ex-husband didn’t want her to move closer to her mum because he was worried about how she was feeling. She was also having a hard time with her ex-boyfriend about who gets to look after the kids.
Nathan Cohen was shocked by what happened because the mum always seemed happy and really loved her kids. He didn’t think anything this sad would happen.
A statement from the mum’s family on GoFundMe shared that she was in a “awful place” amid “ongoing litigation” with her ex-husband and father of her twin daughters. Pruessner and her ex, David Pruessner, divorced in 2017, and they both looked after Ivy and Ellie until last year, according to the New York Post.
Pruessner was also dealing with a custody fight with her former boyfriend, Jared Spader, who is the dad of Jackson and Millie. Pruessner’s lawyer, Nathan Cohen, told The Post: “She saw her children being used by their dads as pawns and she found the process and system for sorting out those claims as slow, boring and never-ending.
“Every day that Birdie made a step forward, her ex-husband or her old boyfriend would do something to belittle or weaken her role as a mum.”
Cohen mentioned that Pruessner made “less than $60,000 a year” (£47,000) and struggled with the legal costs. He also said he never believed his client was a danger to herself or her children.
