My name is Crystal Hubbard and I have created this fundraising campaign for my friends, the Hemmerlein family. Around 9am on November 20, 2025, lightning struck their mobile home. Lee and Shannon Hemmerlein didn't have to be told their home was a total loss. They saw it--the complete destruction of their home and everything in it. Their friend Danny Foster was among the first to discover the tragedy. Approximately two hours after the incident, Foster posted this to his Facebook page:

"It’s a terrible thing.... Lee and Shannon [Hemmerlein’s] house got struck by lightning and burnt so fast they couldn’t get anything out. Bobby Hillis was there within 15 minutes of me calling the fire dept. They could use clothes and shoes, and furniture, beds etc."

Mr. Foster shot the photo I used for the cover of this campaign. It took little more than a few minutes for the lightning strike to create a blaze that devoured the house. Shannon and her son were home when the lightning hit. They escaped with nothing but the clothes on their backs. They didn't have time to even grab their phones. I see that big column of black smoke in the photo, and with it, the lives of the Hemmerleins' as they knew them curling into the unknown.

Lee has a TikTok channel that normally features friendly and fascinating stories of his hard work on Hermit Hollow Farm. Lee's first video in the aftermath of the fire was agonizing. It's not my place to declare who deserves what in this life...but I'm gonna do it anyway. The Hemmerleins did not deserve to lose the home that Lee lovingly built additions to with his own hands. Their son didn't deserve to lose the tools he needs for his work in a fire that burned hot enough to warp Shannon's cast iron skillets.

I sit at my laptop, safe in my home, while my friends now live in a two-bedroom mobile home they were able to move onto their property. We've all had losses and disappointments. They're part of life. I survived cancer some years ago only to develop diabetes and crippling neuropathy that led to the amputation of my toes last year. I'm only just now beginning to walk on my own, unassisted, and upright like a human person. I'll be getting a lot of walking practice in the coming days, as I plan to knock on doors, dig ditches, walk dogs, and write books (my regular job) to help make my beloved friends whole.

There's no good time for a house fire, never mind one caused by a lightning strike that burned, scorched, melted, warped, or incinerated every keepsake, every article of clothing, every piece of furniture, and the very walls of the one place they expect to feel safe. It's especially heart-breaking when such loss occurs during the holiday season in the midst of an economy straining everyone.

Well...not exactly everyone. If I were a member of the 1% holding most of the money in the world, I would take care of all of the Hemmerleins' needs. I'd shove funds in their mailbox (unless it's one of the things settled under smoking embers at present) and run away as fast as I could, to stop them from trying to give the money back to me. Every cent earned in this campaign goes directly to the Hemmerleins. This campaign is linked directly to their banking, never mine. I am merely the long-winded messenger.

The Hemmerleins are that unique brand of human who never fails to give help to anyone who needs it, and they do it with free and willing hearts. They do it simply because it needs doing. They expect nothing in return, and let's be real--a lot of kindness is repaid with indifference or rudeness these days.

Lee and Shannon have earned the kindness of friends and strangers, and I make this bold statement having been the recipient of their generosity of spirit and action. The Hemmerleins live three hours from St. Louis. Yet Lee brought my family bathroom tissue during the shortages caused by the Covid pandemic in 2020. A couple years before that, when I was in the hospital after a very painful ordeal with kidney stones (Kidney boulders, 22mm and 26mm), Lee came to visit me. He is the one person not a blood relative to have ever visited me during one of my numerous hospital stays.

I looked like a deviled egg. I could smell the hospital aromas on me, and I was sure Lee could too. If he did, he gave no indication of it. He sat and we had the kind of visit that doses a cranky, unhappy, aching, homesick patient with the very best medicine.

I felt some kind of way about being seen in a hospital gown, my hair uncombed, my face unwashed, and those horrible non-skid socks flopping at the ends of my unshaven legs. My gratefulness for Lee's visit came to override my discomfort regarding my appearance.

I'm hoping this campaign is successful enough to override the Hemmerleins' discomfort regarding my insistence on creating it. They have helped so many people in so many ways throughout their lives. I don't think it's unreasonable to hope the seeds of kindness and goodwill the Hemmerleins have spread so freely will yield a harvest of generosity.

They don't expect it, mind you. I'm well aware that I'm doing something my dear friends would not have chosen for themselves. That's why I chose it for them. I am a busybody. I do my best to help anyone who needs it. My friends need more than I alone can give. I'm asking everyone who reads this (too long) missive to please put something in this campaign's hat.

If you read this entire story, please...donate until it stings! You clearly have a generous heart to have stared down this wall of words.

Thank you, to those of you who can help. Whether it's a little or a lot, it all adds up. At a time when so much discord and division has ripped us apart, let's come together to help a family who’s confronting devastating loss with incomparable graciousness and humility.

There's been no whining, no self-pitying "Why me?" The Hemmerleins have displayed a stoic acceptance I can only marvel at. Lee calls himself lucky, in spite of everything. I have prayed and prayed for blessings to see them through the winter months. With this campaign, I ask you to be one of them. A real blessing.

Thank you.