Help Virginia Hart come back home!

My parents' neighbor Virginia Hart, age 90 and her son Mark, age 60, have been displaced from their home on Big Horse Creek in Lansing, NC. The creek is across the street and flooded their house, resulting in structural and interior damage. They are unable to return to their home unless repairs are made.

Virginia worked at Sprage Electric and was a homemaker, raising 3 children. Her husband was in the Army but has passed away. Mark worked for the DOT for 30 years and is retired.

Virginia's daughter, Ann Trivette, looks out for both of them and lives in Hickory. She works for Medi Home Health. When Hurricane Helene hit our area, Virginia immediately thought to herself, "I have to get to my mom and brother!" She could not go straight through Lansing because several roads had been washed away, so it was a long, complicated drive up and over White Top. When Ann finally got to her house trudging through floodwaters, mud and debris, she found her mom in her pjs and told her, "There's water in my house. I have to go to bed."

By this point, there was 6 inches of water in the house, but Virginia refused to leave her home of 60+ years. Ann slept in the bed with her mom that night while it continued to flood.

Virginia Hart is currently staying in Hickory with another family member while Ann and other distant relatives clean out the house. Ann told me her mom keeps saying, "I just want to go home. I just want to go home." The family has helped clear out the belongings, load furniture onto a trailer, etc. and are all completely overwhelmed and devasted.

The entire Hart family are hard workers, blue-collar, give-the- shirt-off-their-back kind of people. The sudden re-model of an entire house is a financial hardship they are unable to pay for. Ann's nephew works for a contracting company in Hickory and has a crew ready to do the repairs; they just need help raising the money for the cost of materials.

I am asking for $15,000 for the following repairs:

-seal plates for the entire back side of the house

-new band

-new heating and air

-new floor joists

-new flooring

-refrigerator and oven

-any miscellaneous repairs we might run into during the repair process of a 100 year old house

Virginia's daughter insisted, "They don't need anything fancy, just enough to get her and Mark home." All remaining funds will be used to help build bridges for homeowners in need in the town of Lansing, NC.

I have passed Mark and Virginia on the drive over to my parents' house over a thousand times, sitting on their front porch and EVERY.SINGLE.TIME they have given me a friendly "wave." Help me bring Virginia and Mark Hart back home so they may continue projecting friendly waves!