I’m Gretchen Elise , a singer-songwriter from Philadelphia known to turn a mess into a masterpiece. On Christmas Eve, a DUI hit-and-run driver crashed into my house, and I’m raising funds to rebuild my family’s home, recoup losses, and record Grateful Love, a song I wrote in response to my community’s generosity.

Christmas Eve 2025 my husband and I were sitting in the dining room of our Philly rowhome while our kids slept. Hearing aggressive screeching and a thunderous explosion, we ran to see the front of our house and all its contents had been shattered. The driver took out a tree, 4 cars, backed into our house, and fled. Gratefully, no one was hurt.

The magic began on Christmas Day. Neighbors helped us board up our home so we could give our 2 teens some semblance of a holiday. Friends and neighbors sent groceries, hugs, support, cash, and prayers. When a friend refused to let me reimburse her for dinner, I collapsed on the couch facing the gaping hole in our wall, and wrote the song Grateful Love .

It was so therapeutic to focus on creating this upbeat song of gratitude over the weeks after the crash, that I organized a last minute home video recording in our construction site of a home. Musicians donated their precious time. My husband Luke engineered, and my daughter Sonja styled me. We submitted Grateful Love - live - to the NPR Tiny Desk Contest. The live recording brought healing love into our injured home.

It’s no accident that “When life gives you lemons, get up and make some lemonade,” found its way into the lyrics. The lemonade will get sweeter as we seek crowdfunding to:

1) Rebuild: so we can again be a hub of positive music for children and adults in our community

2) Recoup: recoup the losses from expenses, deductibles, and lost work due to the crash

3) Record: a studio version of Grateful Love for global distribution

I thank my community for helping me and my family through this trial, and I thank you for reading my story. The driver is still at large. We still face enormous challenges. But my family is healthy and my heart is full of “Grateful Love/ Grateful, grateful, grateful / Grateful for You, Love.”