After her daughters and grandchildren, Nannie’s pride and joy was her house in the Gardens in Ocean City, New Jersey. Nancy fell in love with the house in the 1940s during Sunday drives at the beach, when Nancy’s mother Emma would point the house out as her favorite. Years later, the property went up for sale, and Nannie used her savings to buy and fix it up. It wasn’t long before her family also fell in love with the home, from its pointy roof to her perennial garden. Nannie’s love became their love too.

In her last years of life, Nannie wished for two things: She wanted to stay at home despite her declining health, and she wanted to pass the home along to her family. Her family helped her achieve this first goal by taking care of her and the house, and by using the property’s value to arrange round-the-clock at-home care. But, when Nannie died at home this November, the legacy she thought she was leaving instead became at risk of disappearing.

Nannie’s family — including her daughter Lauren, who started this GoFundMe — had a thought: What if, inspired by Nannie’s own lifetime of kindness and caring for others, we asked the people who loved Nan and her family members, or even who love this century-old Shore house, to chip in to see if we all could save it?

After all, this spot — we’ve heard the original owner was a diving horse rider on the Steel Pier — must be one of the most unique old houses left on the island. And, if there was one lesson that Nannie taught us, it was that every small act of kindness counts.