FLORENCE (AP) — Fear still plagues Kristina Evans when she talks about her premature triplets. They’re in stable condition now, but she can’t remember the ordeals of the past three months without trepidation.

But ask her about Kim Wright and the worried looks vanish.

“She’s pretty great,” beams Evans.

Until four months ago, Evans, 32, didn’t even know Wright. They were neighbors but didn’t know it and never spoken.

The triplets were delivered via Caesarean section at a dangerously early time, 26 weeks.

Medical bills and time away from her family left Evans, whose closest blood relative is nearly five hours away, overwhelmed.

But Evans has learned that the kindness of strangers can be boundless.

So far 47 are being briefed weekly on the babies’ progress and the family’s needs.

Meals are delivered Monday through Friday to her husband, Bob, and their other two children.

A local car dealership has agreed to donate the next trade-in van that comes in.

Contractors are retrofitting their garage free to make room for the triplets.

A glass shop offered a new window. A furniture store gave an oversized rocker crib. Beauticians donated a makeover. Clothiers offered a free outfit, to lift the harried mom’s spirits.

Born on Dec. 31, the anniversary of the death of Evans’ first-born to sudden infant death syndrome, Terrance, Keegan and Braylon are only 4, 5 and 6 pounds, still struggling to breathe, still requiring nurses to stop by every few hours and remove mucus from their airways.

The couple had intended their third child to be their last.

They were delighted to learn twins were on the way and shocked when a third figure became visible.

“Do you see that? Do you see that? Do you see that?” the doctor asked Evans, pointing at each shape. You are pregnant with triplets. That was in November, when Evans was four and a half months along. But complications came quickly.

One fetus had low amniotic fluid and doctors weren’t sure if the triplets were in individual or shared placentas.

If they shared one, if one died in the womb Evans’ body would be tricked into believing it unnecessary to provide nutrients to the other two.

In late December, Evans’ water broke, 11 weeks early.

“I was bawling hysterically,” she recalled. “I thought, ‘Oh my gosh. They’re too little. They’re not going to make it.’”

On New Years Eve she went into labor and was strapped to an operating table and she drifted into unconscious. She awoke asking. “Are they alive?” repeatedly, and learned that they were.

Whether they could survive was another question.

The triplets were each about one pound, eight ounces. Their skin was transparent, revealing vessels and organs, their eyes fused shut like kittens’.

They were having heartbeat and breathing trouble. Their heads were maybe about the size of a tangerine, Evans said, their limbs the size of a Magic Marker.

Terrance had failing kidneys and required 600 puffs of oxygen into his lungs each minute.

At one point, Evans decided her role might be to shepherd them into death.

She spent so much time at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Eugene that caring for her remaining family became a near-impossibility.

That’s where Wright stepped in. She met Evans while Evans was still pregnant, when the expectant mom and her husband decided to belatedly celebrate their anniversary with a stay at the Heceta Head Lighthouse Bed & Breakfast, which Wright manages.

Wright realized the two were neighbors, that Evans was pregnant in a big way and that she had virtually no friends or other support in Florence.

“We exchanged numbers, but I figured it was just a kind gesture.” Evans said.

Two days later, Wright was at Evans’ front door with a casserole. That’s how it started. Kim went on a rampage, Evans said. “She was saying, ‘What do you need?’ ”

Help started pouring in.

Wright is a member of Delta Gamma sorority, which adopts a family each year and performs a service each month, so she got them involved.

“Kristina had a lot of what she called worries,” Wright said. “I told her if she just put them on paper and let somebody else take care of it, they turn into concerns. We just started attacking each of those things.”

Wright initially sent e-mails to 15 people in Delta Gamma who were willing to help. The list now numbers 47.

Now Wright is focused on finding nursing moms to donate breast milk because Evans can’t produce enough.

To buy donor milk through the hospital would cost up to $1,200 per week.

Evans still worries whether the triplets will be healthy.

Triplets run a higher risk of cerebral palsy. Terrance’s lungs were damaged by the oxygen, and he will have to avoid cigarette smoke and incense for life. He’ll need eye surgery to avoid total blindness.

Still, Evans is optimistic and grateful. “I’ve learned a lot about people,” she said. “How kind they can be.”