Preston and Chelsea Tornado Fund
Hi everyone, this is Chelsea and Preston. We appreciate all the texts and phone calls we received today after our home was demolished by the Nashville tornado at 12:50am in our neighborhood. We were very lucky that our dogs, Theo and Olive, woke us up as our bedroom was completely crushed by the brick walls of our home. We made it to the basement where our laundry room is - just in time and managed to stay safe. Our laundry room was the only room that did not have glass that was blown out. We are all tired, cut up, bruised, and shaken but we are ALIVE and that is something to celebrate. Most of our belongings have been ruined by water but we have managed to gather some of our clothes and are currently doing laundry at my parents house in West Nashville. We have one working car and managed to find all of Preston's trumpets. All of my school books and documents are gone...
We will rebuild but I know we will do it faster with help, since so many of your texts were to ask if there was a fundraiser set up for us... we decided to set up a go fund me page. I have never set one up before so I hope I am doing this right. We will set the goal low and appreciate the offers and kindness given to us today. It really kept us going! Kindness (monetary or not goes a million miles) - I truly believe it.
Even though we lost a lot today we do have each other and that is EVERYTHING! We will still be getting married in ELEVEN days! We found my dress and the rings! (I have no idea how we found them - my mom and dad searched the whole property until they were found). Hopefully we will still have a party on September 6th for family and friends but I honestly don't know! Either way we will be celebrating and loving one another for a very long time. Preston was and always has been my hero since the very first day we met. I can not speak enough to his bravery and composure today. I feel so incredibly honored to call him my almost husband!
If you would like to help in other ways I know we will need it in the following days and weeks. We are working on securing a place to live with our insurance company while we figure out how to rebuild. I am not sure how I am going to handle my classes for the rest of the semester as all of my notes and books are gone - if you are a classmate of mine and can make copies of notes and previous tests to send via email that could keep me in the game to finish strong this semester. We will need therapy - from a professional (I'm guessing) but also from friends and family - please do not hesitate to check in with us. Vegetarian meals will start to come in handy in the next couple of days and weeks. Once we find a place to live - blankets for us and the dogs. I will not say no to help with laundry before everything rots. If you grew up with Preston and have pictures please scan them and email them to us. He lost almost all of his childhood memories due to the water pipe that took a while to get shut off in our house - it would mean so much to us both. We are coming down from the adrenaline as shock sets in - I am sorry if this is not a complete list...I will try to update as I think of anything else.
UPDATE 3/4/2020: Thank you so much for helping us reach our original goals! There are no words for the kindness everyone has poured into our cause! We have decided to raise our goal one last time. If it continues to go over the 30k goal we will continue to feel grateful and humbled. THANK YOU. If you would like more in depth updates please feel free to friend me on Facebook (Chelsea Jordan Ardisson) where I have been trying to keep everyone posted in real time since I've run out of room here on go fund me!
Again. Thank you.
