Eyewitness News was there with Essence Adele the day she returned to their Midland Beach bungalow to find everything destroyed after Sandy.
There was even a rat that washed up dead.
It may have been a small bungalow, but it was a dream come true for this 31-year-old single mother of three.
It is where she moved after living in a Brooklyn shelter.
It was home and now she's without one.
FEMA put her up at the Sugar Hill Bed and Breakfast in the Miles Davis room complete with a kitchenette and bath.
Downstairs there's living room, and on this day cupcakes for her daughter Assiah's 11th birthday.
Just a little sweetness in the face of weeks of sadness.
A mother's love is keeping them afloat.
This is where they will be on Christmas; a bed and breakfast in another borough with thoughts of the future.
"I just said we can't go home right now, but we will go home eventually, not to that home but something better," Berryhill said.
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