Rebuilding life after Hurricane Idalia

The picture used is a drone shot by Max Chesnes from the Tampa Bay Times.

Hello friends! My name is Katie!

As you know, Hurricane Idalia has devastated various cities and towns across the southeast United States. My heart goes out to anyone who experienced loss, heartache, or livelihood due to this storm. However, I have full faith in the strength and power of resiliency, community, and the universe to bring those individuals peace and everything good in this life moving forward.

For this story, you can consider Hurricane Idalia "the final straw."

Horseshoe Beach, Florida, is a place only a few have heard of. Well, until now. It is a beautiful seaside town that houses over 20 years of memories for my family. In the mid to late 90s, my grandparents bought a beautiful double-wide trailer at the end of a canal that shot right into the Gulf of Mexico. My family fondly called it the cabin, and almost every summer, my entire family of ten would visit the three-bedroom, two-bath cabin to boat, scallop, and fish. The kids would run around in thigh-high rubber boots to try and catch blue crabs with chicken on a fishing line at low tide and take turns lining up to get our height marked on the inside of the pantry door to see how much we had grown since the summer before. My grandmother wasn't one for the water, so while my grandfather took the rest of the family out in the boat in shifts, my grandmother was baking oatmeal cookies, making snacks, and prepping the outside patio to take on the mess that came with cleaning scallops and fish.

In 2010, my grandfather passed away, and no one was going to Horseshoe Beach anymore. The kids were getting older, the family was arguing, and it seemed, at the time, that the cabin would forever stay a memory.

Time to switch up the story!

I could not be more clear about how this story is not sad. But one of triumph and perseverance. Albeit triumph and perseverance, again and again, time after time.

My parents have got to be two of the most amazing people on the planet. They are hard workers and huge lovers and would give you the shirts off their backs if needed. They have even gone as far as taking in the homeless to help them establish a better life. While never having too much money, you can call them philanthropists of the heart. That said, they have had to be more resilient than anyone should ever have to be and have never asked for anything in return. My parents have experienced years of trials and tribulations, trying new things and taking on new prospects just to get the short end of the stick, dealing with greedy and super yucky people, selling the home I grew up in for a venture that did not work out in their favor because of greed and yucky people, dealing with health scares from strokes and cancer (both of them are currently okay on those fronts), my mom not being able to work and my dad working himself to the bone, and two trucks they are about done for. They have always found a way to be there for others and just " make it work." After selling my brother and I's childhood home, my grandmother gave my mom the deed to the Horseshoe Beach cabin as they had nowhere else to turn at the time. Since then, my parents have put massive amounts of sweat equity, love, and life into the beautiful double-wide cabin and turned the place into a gorgeous home for two. Well, five, if you count, the one dog they already owned and the two puppies they recently rescued who were dumped on the side of the road.

While the cabin still stands, which is more than most can say in Florida's Big Bend, it is uninhabitable after Hurricane Idalia massacred Horseshoe Beach. They have a place to stay on a nearby watermelon farm for now; but they need something good and solid to happen in their lives. They need a new place to call home, a forever home. I am asking for a donation to help my parents. Any amount will make a huge difference. It is also worth mentioning any donated money; though I am raising money to get them a new home, they will not use it all alone. I know this because they are my parents; with the donations received, Mom and Dad will use some of it to help rebuild Horseshoe Beach. So rest assured, you're not only helping to rebuild the lives of two of the best people on the planet, you are helping rebuild an entire community.

Thank you so much for any and all of your help.

With all my love in this world and beyond,

-Katie :)