After the tragedy in East Lansdowne, the Le family’s loved ones find solace in memories

The Le family home on Lewis Avenue in East Lansdowne is reduced to ash, the last embers long extinguished. And now the mourning has begun.

On a recent afternoon, surrounded by friends and family, Justin McLaughlin spoke, through his grief, of his niece Natalya Le, who died with her parents and two siblings when the house was consumed by fire on Feb. 7. How one of the 17-year-old’s high school friends had texted him, saying, “She was always the shoulder I could lean on. I’m so thankful for such a great person as she being a part of my life. She made school a better place.

“When I think of the word talent, I see Natalya,” the classmate wrote. “There was not one thing that she couldn’t do.”

McLaughlin’s voice broke, and he choked back tears as he read the message. But he said it helped to talk about Natalya, who loved K-pop, graphic design, and scrapbooking with her mother, and aspired to a career that would allow her to pursue her creative interests.

Natalya and her parents, Xuong Le and Britni McLaughlin Le, were among the six people whose bodies were found in the house in East Lansdowne after it erupted in flames. Also killed were the couple’s two other children, and Le’s brother, Cahn Le, who engaged in a shootout with police, authorities say, before starting the fire that destroyed the home where he lived with his brother’s family.

But rather than dwell on how the Les perished in that blaze, their loved ones focused on warm memories and on the family’s roots, planted two decades earlier just a few miles from their East Lansdowne home.

The couple met at the Perkins restaurant on Lansdowne Avenue in Drexel Hill, where she was a waitress and he worked as a cook. They were instantly drawn to each other, said Liz Brown, their coworker at the time. The two flirted during the breakfast rushes, when Le would sometimes playfully throw scraps of pancakes at McLaughlin.

» READ MORE: What we know about the East Lansdowne fire, shooting of police officers, and the family members who died

Brown was there when the couple got married 17 years ago, standing next to McLaughlin as her maid of honor. Years later, she said, the couple still did everything together. They had just purchased tickets to the Phillies’ home opener March 28 against the Atlanta Braves, and were eagerly counting down the days.

“Britni was like the brains of the operation for most of us,” Brown said. “She was the planner. She made everything come together. She was always the missing piece.”

Their friend group planned yearly trips, excursions to Mexico, Jamaica and other destinations. Some of the last texts they exchanged with McLaughlin Le were to plan another trip, to Walt Disney World in December, to coincide with a competition her younger daughter’s dance school was participating in.

The couple had three children, Natalya, 17; Nakayla, 14; and Xavier, 10. They died alongside their parents, according to investigators, unable to escape the home before their uncle set it ablaze.

Xuong Le’s parents, Chin and Huong, also lived in the home, and called 911 that day to report that their older son had shot Nakayla, police said. The elderly couple fled as the gunfire continued.

When two officers, one from Lansdowne and another East Lansdowne, arrived to investigate, they were ambushed by shots fired from the home’s third-floor attic.

Police say Canh Le was that gunman, and they believe he started the fire at the home. Firefighters were initially delayed in battling the blaze as police worked to secure the scene.

The home burned nearly to its foundation, and six sets of human remains were later removed by investigators, along with a melted rifle. Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer has said it will take a significant amount of time to identify those remains, which were damaged by the fire.

As they wait, the family’s loved ones have found solace in their memories.

McLaughlin Le’s younger sister, Jenae, said Britni always wanted to be a mom and a homemaker. She had a knack for arts and crafts, and masterfully wielded her Cricut machine, creating T-shirts, cups and other favors for parties and family outings.

One of the more recent, treasured memories of the family was when they took the Marvel-obsessed Xavier — who used the nickname “Professor X” after the similarly named X-Men character — to see Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. All of them wore custom white hoodies that McLaughlin Le had made for the occasion, and teased her when she got upset that they had spilled a few drops of soda and popcorn on them.

McLaughlin Le worked hard for her children, picking up a second job on top of her shifts at Perkins at the nearby Casey’s Saloon to help pay for tuition at Merion Mercy Academy, an all-girls Catholic high school in Montgomery County where Nakayla had recently been accepted.

“Britni was the type of person, and Xuong, too, that would give the shirt off their backs for you,” said Sandra Morales, a longtime friend of the couple’s. “If you called them at 1 o’clock in the morning and told them, ‘Hey, I need something,’ they would be there, no questions asked.”

» READ MORE: Photos from East Lansdowne standoff, fire and aftermath

Janine Lare saw that firsthand, early into her time working alongside Le at the UPS facility at Philadelphia International Airport. Before Lare could clean off her car after a heavy snowfall, Le called her to say he was on his way to pick her up, she said. And hours later, as he drove her home, he pulled over to help stranded motorists dig their car out of a snow drift.

“I didn’t even have to say anything,” Lare said. “He would help anybody, no matter who you were.”

Despite his long hours at work, Le always made sure to make time for Nakayla’s many extracurricular activities. Michelle Pajerski, her volleyball coach at Penn Wood Middle School, said Le was in the stands at every one of her games, no matter where or when they were being played.

Pajerski said Nakayla’s competitiveness and dependability made her stand out among the 600 students at the school. She once volunteered to play on the soccer team when a shortage of players would otherwise have forced the school to forfeit, and then transitioned back to volleyball for a game the next day.

In the classroom, Nakayla was the type of student who answered questions and helped her classmates, Pajerski said. On the court, she picked up new skills quickly, eventually making it to the main team.

”She had the correct balance of just wanting to do better for herself and not trying to be competitive against other people within the sport,” said Pajerski. Nakayla, she said, adopted that philosophy for all of her activities: She was a cheerleader for the basketball team and even gave softball a try in the previous school year.

When news of her death spread at the school, her locker was filled with flowers, stuffed animals, and cards. Pajerski said countless students shared their sympathies.

”They looked at her and idolized her and wanted to be like her on the volleyball court, too,” she said.

Hearing that didn’t surprise Justin McLaughlin, especially now, as he looks back on countless memories with his sister, her husband, and the children he had grown to love so deeply.

“They were just smart, funny kids,” he said. “I don’t know that I can really summarize them in a way that does it justice. Just a loving family.”