A Hand-up For Tim After Hurricane Helene

We (Danielle and Chris from Mountain CORE Mission) had the pleasure of meeting Tim after he was displaced by Hurricane Helene to Bryson City, NC. He needed a new place to live and a habitable camper. As we have gotten to know him we have grown to love him and his infectious optimism. As his story spread before us, we realized how truly amazing this man is. He is humble, kind, funny and forever optimistic. He is living in a community of other displaced people and has happily stepped up to run the kitchen. He gets downright giddy when we talk about the meals he will make and the joy of helping his new home thrive.

Tim consistently says that he only needs a hand-up, not a handout. And we believe him wholeheartedly. There has been a lot of pain and loss in WNC since Hurricane Helene decimated our mountain communities. Tim has been knocked down but he is not out. If you can find it in your heart please donate what you can to provide a hand-up for one very special human. The funds will be used to purchase a truck so he can search for employment and travel to doctor appointments, medication, and costs associated with life.

Tim’s Story

“My wife and I moved to Wilmington NC from Western North Carolina where we raised our Daughter and Son. We loved the coast. My wife and I owned a lucrative masonry and concrete pumping business that we built over 27 years. We had many great years and made wonderful memories when the unthinkable happened.

The next six years of my life were unimaginably difficult. Starting when my daughter died in a terrible car accident. Not long after my son was murdered. The grief of losing our children was unbearable. I also lost the foundation of my support system when my maternal grandfather and grandmother passed. They raised me since I was five years old and provided guidance throughout my life, especially during the most awful years. The tremendous grief and unimaginable stress and sadness caused my 29-year marriage to fail, crumbling our family-run construction business in the wake. My entire support system was gone. I was left with no family, work, or substantial income. It was definitely the darkest time of my life.

After paying all the bills and splitting up our lives I was left with a fifth wheel and truck. I found a job on a pipeline in Wyoming, working long hours six to seven days a week. I worked those grueling hours to focus on anything except the reality that I was now totally alone and worst of all I was never going to see, talk to, or hug a single member of my family ever again. The pipeline closed for the cold Wyoming winter and I came back east to the mountains of my youth.

I moved from spot to spot literally towing my home from one temporary space to the next and when I was positive things couldn’t get any worse Hurricane Helene swept through western North Carolina taking my last possessions. I find myself, at almost 60 with a litany of health issues from a long demanding career in masonry and the stress of grief and loss. I have diabetes with severe neuropathy in both feet and lost a part of my right foot with a possibility of losing part of the left. From years of physically demanding work, I have COPD, high blood pressure, rheumatoid and osteoarthritis, back pain, and shot rotator cups and knees, not to mention severe post-traumatic stress syndrome and depression.

I’m starting over with God’s grace and mercy. I have the hope and a strong will to build some kind of life again. I have been blessed with a camper and a place to put it from the amazing people at Mountain CORE Mission at the Sylva Warehouse in Sylva NC and James at Haven on the Hill in Waynesville NC. The support structure from both groups has been a Godsend.

Any help you can provide will go to essential living expenses including doctor appointments, prescription medications, and transportation. For the first time in my life, I find myself at the mercy of others with no transportation and no way to make a living. Every dollar drives me closer to getting a foothold and moving forward. If you find it in your heart to help me through these hurdles I greatly appreciate your kindness and generosity. May God bless you all.”

Sincerely,

Timothy Adams

**Mountain CORE Mission is a registered 501c3 grassroots organization that grew in response to the decimation of our beloved western North Carolina and eastern Tennesee mountains during Hurricane Helene. All funds go directly to Tim, we are just supporters and facilitators of a hand-up.