P.E.I. woman has emotional return to Fort McMurray

Shannon Comeau cried tears of joy when she returned home to Fort McMurray on Thursday to find her house still standing, dandelions on her lawn and a surprise from her husband.

Comeau, who is from Charlottetown, and her husband and three kids were forced to flee the Fort McMurray wildfires with thousands of others in early May. She spent the last month living with her husband's parents outside Edmonton.

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Her husband, Steve Kugler, returned a few days ago, and told her he would have to be at work when she arrived on Thursday.

But when she opened the door, still on the phone describing the scene live to CBC's Matt Rainnie on Island Morning, her husband was there to surprise her.

"I didn't know he was going to be here," she said through tears.

Comeau was already overcome with emotion from the moment she opened the garage door. It reminded her of the day she fled the fires.

I stood in that garage and I thought I wasn't coming home.– Shannon Comeau

"I stood in that garage and I thought I wasn't coming home, so seeing the garage is a big deal, I guess," she said. "That's where I had to go hide for a minute to have a bit of breakdown because I couldn't do it in front of the kids, so as soon as that garage door opened that was it, it had that memory flood back."

Her kids are still with her husband's parents. Before they come, she'll spend a few days steam cleaning the carpets and washing the walls.

And, of course, celebrating their homecoming.

"Now I just want to open up the deck and have an East Coast kitchen party," she said.

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