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WILKES-BARRE — Evelyn Reese sat down on the sofa in her front room, gently running her hands over a framed photo of the smiling little boy with his spectacles and striped polo shirt.
“This is my baby,” Reese said quietly, literally surrounded by mementos of the great-grandson she had cared for almost since birth.
Just three days before, Aiden Middlemiss had played in this small room with its red walls.
Photos of him still rest on corner tables, along with school recognition certificates. His toy box stands by the doorway. One of his LEGO creations, nestled by a pile of books, fell to the floor and broke apart as Reese sat down.
“Oh no!” she said, scrambling to reach for the errant pieces.
On Monday, Aiden, 11, left Reese’s Wilkes-Barre home to return to foster care after a weekend visit.
Shortly before 1 a.m. the next day, a fire broke out at the Wood Street home in Pittston where Aiden was staying.
The brown-haired boy with his broad smile died of smoke inhalation, an autopsy confirmed.
“Children and Youth called us to come to the hospital, said that there was an accident,” Reese recalled. “I said, ‘Was Aiden hurt?’ They said yes, but they couldn’t tell me anything.”
“When my grandson and I went to the hospital to see him, he was already dead,” Reese said.
She insisted on seeing his body, on touching his forehead.
“Aiden was a little gentleman,” Reese said. “He was very caring.”
Court proceedings
Reese invited a Times Leader reporter and photographer into her home on Thursday to talk about Aiden, whom she described as “like my own kid.”
What she couldn’t talk about was the investigation into Aiden’s death, and the fire which caused it.
Three juveniles were detained Tuesday night, but their names and any charges were not released due to their ages and rules of juvenile court procedure, Pittston police said in a news release, adding that law enforcement could not comment further.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, law enforcement sources have told the Times Leader that fireworks set off near the home ignited a blaze on the front porch. Aiden’s bedroom was above the front porch.
County property records listed the owner of the house as Bobbie Jo Karpinski, whom Reese said was Aiden’s foster mother.
Reese said that she, along with other family members, attended a lengthy court hearing in the case on Thursday, but said she was not able to discuss the matter. She added only that officials said the case also remains under investigation.
“Bobbie Jo and I, the foster mother, cried all the while,” Reese said of Thursday’s proceeding.
“Aiden loved Bobbie Jo,” Reese added. “She said he was a very well-behaved kid.”
‘My little buddy’
Reese, 82, is mother of five, grandmother of six and great-grandmother to six more.
Her North End residence has been home to many members of those three generations over the years, including Aiden and one of his sisters.
When their mother had issues that prevented her from caring for the children, Reese said, she took them in “because I had a place to live.”
“That was about 10 years ago,” she said. “He was 7 months old when I got him.”
“He was my little buddy.”
Last year, Aiden and his sister were moved into foster care. Reese said she couldn’t discuss the reasons, saying only that she had been in the hospital at the time, and that Aiden’s sister was at a different location.
Aiden had been coming home for weekend visits, including last weekend, his great-grandmother said.
On Thursday, his upstairs bedroom looked as he left it days earlier, Reese said.
Amid car posters and video games, there also were signs of a serious-minded young boy: A statue of the Virgin Mary in one corner, and rosary beads wrapped around a big stuffed SpongeBob SquarePants doll.
“He was a good kid, very helpful,” Reese said. “An altar boy.”
Aiden attended St. Mary’s Byzantine Catholic Church, around the corner and up the hill on North Main Street.
“The one nun, Sister Theodosia, a very pleasant lady, said that when they were teaching other children things for First Holy Communion, Aiden would go over and help them,” Reese said. “He made friends very easily.”
One of the priests praised Aiden for his attention to detail in helping set up for Mass, saying “he was a child that liked what he was doing,” she recalled.
Reese opened the bedroom closet, and pulled out a small suit, still wrapped in a white plastic bag.
“That was going to be for church,” she said, before hanging it back up.
Aiden liked to build things, Reese said back in the front room downstairs, pointing to the LEGO blocks and the toybox, saying he had talked about attending college to become an engineer.
He also had expressed an interest in attending the annual Pennsylvania State Police Camp Cadet program for youth, and wanted to learn karate, Reese said.
Aiden spent his last weekend watching karate movies with one of her sons during the visit, Reese added.
It wasn’t the only thing discussed during that visit.
On Monday, before Aiden left for Pittston, Reese came up to him while he was playing on her computer in the front room.
“We got a call from our attorney Monday morning. I walked up to Aiden and tapped him on the shoulder,” she said.
“I said, guess what? You’re going to be coming home at the end of this month.”
DONATIONS
Members of Aiden’s family have asked that any memorial contributions be made to St. Mary’s Byzantine Catholic Church, 695 North Main St., Wilkes-Barre, PA 18705.
A separate GoFundMe account which has been set up in recent days is intended for members of the foster family who were caring for Aiden, his relatives said.
