SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — It's been seven years since a San Diego county firefighter was killed in the line of duty.
Cory Iverson, an apparatus engineer with Cal Fire, died in Dec. 2017 fighting the Thomas Fire in Ventura County.
His widow, Ashley Iverson, and their two daughters live in Sacramento now.
Evie is in fourth grade now. Taylor is in first grade. It's the start of another school year without their dad.
"Evie longs for an earthly daddy for sure. I think that losing her daddy just shy of three years old certainly left an imprint on her that she is missing out on something extremely special," said Ashley.
Sadly, Taylor never met her dad.
"I’ll hear her say to people that she doesn’t have a daddy, and so you can bet, that I’m very quick to chirp in and remind her that she will always have a daddy, you just can’t see him," said Ashley.
WATCH: Iverson recounts her intense experience in leaving the San Diego area, her home of 20 years.
Cory Iverson's death made national headlines as one of the largest wildfires in California history raged. We first sat down with his pregnant widow, Ashley, just three months later.
"I don't know where I am right now, what planet I am on, but Cory touched the world, and he was mine," Ashley told us during that interview in the spring of 2018.
Ashley's heartbreak touched anyone who heard her story. ABC 10News has followed through, staying in touch with the family.
We met baby Taylor when she was just weeks old.
"Especially when she first came out, to see him in her and feel like I was looking into his eyes again," Ashley said.
Ashley turned her pain into purpose, launching the Iverson Foundation for Active Awareness. The nonprofit helps firefighters deal with the job's mental trauma.
"We had the opportunity to host over 2,000 yoga classes and put on three different music therapy pilots and I spoke over 30 times in the first two years of losing Cory and sharing the light, what life can be like coming out of the darkness," said Ashley.
WATCH: Iverson reminiscences on the foundation's success, and why it's now taking a backseat for her.
Moving from the San Diego County home that she shared with Cory was also emotional.
"To be honest, I was leaving behind the identity of Cory’s widow, which was very complex in itself."
Complex but also comforting.
"I've gotten to a point in my life where I don’t really want to live in that identity every single day. It will always be a part of my story that I am unbelievably grateful for, but to focus on it day in and day out, that time has past," said Ashley.
The focus now is solely on her precious little girls.
"For the first five years after losing Cory, I was absolutely in survival mode," said Ashley, adding that she's in a much strong place now.
"It’s one of those things where it’s like what happened is not good, but we are as good as possible."
WATCH: Iverson says she's ready to see her daughters start their school careers.
