Hi, my name is Kay and I’m fundraising in support of a family I love dearly. I moved to our little corner lot on Tidewater Drive in Norfolk Virginia about 7 months ago. I quickly became friends with the woman who lives next door. Her name is Taylor, and she is a cosmetologist by trade as well as a crafty, knowledge hungry, homeschooling parent. She quickly became the village I’ve always needed.

Taylor and her partner Ryan, their 3 children, Railee (Taylor’s little sis), and the household pups all lost their home to a fire yesterday afternoon, on Thursday November 16th. All heartbeats are still beating and no one suffered serious physical injuries. We are so grateful that all our friends and furry friends are alive and safe!

Any time a tragedy like this happens, I hear people say “I never thought it would happen to us” and that’s exactly how I felt when I heard Taylor’s screams and then looked out my kitchen window to see my best friend frantically trying to save her children and her family home.

My family, other neighbors, and strangers from the nearby Walgreens parking fought the fire with a garden hose and buckets of water until Norfolk fire engines 13 and 9 arrived on the scene. (Thank you all so much for your selfless help!)

It was an electrical fire that started in the front of the home, completely burning the living room, and irreversibly damaging the rest of the home and all its contents with smoke and soot. As you can see in the current cover photo, the home is uninhabitable, and it may potentially need to be completely demolished and rebuilt.

Yesterday my friends woke up in the first home they purchased as a family and had a normal morning in the house they have poured hundreds of hours of love and labour into. In a few quick minutes, an unexpected tragedy took that home from them.

I’m not certain if it’s a result of work ethic, pride, or their nifty self sufficiency, but Taylor and Ryan do not ask for help. They are the neighbors who always have sugar and eggs to spare when I run out, but they never need anything from me.

Homeschooling children, working from home, cooking family meals, crafting or gaming in the living room, family movie nights, Thanksgiving dinner plans, hanging Christmas lights and decorating the lawn with snow man inflatables all came to a full stop with the loss of their home. The financial challenges this family will experience as they navigate the aftermath of the fire will be significant. The invisible challenges of losing your home in a terrifying fire have a depth that I can’t even imagine, and I doubt money could ever fix, but let’s see what we can do to help out!

If you aren’t in the position to help by sharing funds that will be used to ease the burden of displacement, please consider sharing this go fund me link with your friends and family. Any action is appreciated. Much love to you all!