by Brent Frazier
BORDEAUX, TENN. - Two inseparable sisters, Novella Bass and Tommie Katherine "TK" Bass, 101 years old and 96, respectively, remain in critical condition inside Vanderbilt's regional burn center.
"With the advanced age, with the significance of their injuries, the likelihood of having this being a good turnout is not very good," said Jeff Guy, M.D., the director of the burn center.
Dr. Guy said what is paramount is to keep the two elderly women comfortable, through medication, and pain free. Though clearly, the ones suffering are the family members in the burn waiting area.
"I just want them to be comfortable," said Freeman Bass, the adopted son of Novella, the elder sister. "I don't want to see them go through anymore pain, you know? Because pain is an awful thing!"
Freeman Bass helped put a face on the two survivors of the Monday evening house fire by sharing NewsChannel 5 a little about the two sisters who raised him and his sister since the age of 6.
He described a full, and love-filled life.
"A wonderful life," he exclaimed. "And if God sees fit for them to come home to Him, hey - I'll be happy!"
He said both his mother, Novella, and aunt, TK, have Master's degrees in education. He said both are retired Metro school teachers: Novella Bass having taught English at the former Washington Junior High School, Pearl High School, and even TSU.
Aunt TK, he explained, spent her teaching career at Johnson Elementary School in South Nashville.
Freeman Bass said limited mobility in both women could certainly explain why both had to be rescued from the burning house, by Nashville firefighters, around sunset Monday.
He said Novella, who walks with the aid of a walker, was found on her bed on a ground level; her sister, TK, legally blind and mobile only with help from a cane, was found collapsed in the floor of a hallway.
A spokesperson for the Nashville Fire Department confirms there is no evidence of a single, working smoke detector inside what's left of the tri-level house.
That NFD spokesman also added the fire likely started in the ground-level kitchen area; and the origin was looking more and more like a stove or some type of cooking device left on and unattended, by someone other than the two sisters.
Novella Bass, 101
Tommie Katherine "TK" Bass, 96
