
Gram's Love Story

The help from the donors of Ellies Rainy Day Fund is a sigh of relief. It gives us one less thing to stress and worry about, so we can focus on rebuilding a place to call home for our family. I can't tell you what this exactly means to us because we can't even express the feeling after going through so many tragic events, but I can say that we are thankful for a program like this, for those who need it, because Gram probably wouldn’t have pulled through without you. Especially on behalf of my daughter, but from the rest of us as well, we want to thank you for preventing us suffering even more tragedy and loss.
A Message from Gram's Mom...
To put it mildly, it hasn’t been a good week. It started with my husband’s grandma dying. The following day as we were leaving grandma’s burial, our aunt (grandma’s daughter) had a heart attack. Unfortunately, she also died.
While we were at grandma’s viewing, we got a call that our house was on fire!
By the time we got home, there wasn’t much of it left. We lost everything. We have 4 kids (between the ages of 1 and 10) and 3 dogs (between the ages of 15 weeks-5 years). Fortunately, the kids weren’t at home but the dogs were not that lucky.
My father lives directly across the street and when he saw the flames he rushed over and kicked in the door to try to save our beloved pups. He was able to grab one of the 15-week-olds but it was too hot to go in any farther.


When the firefighters arrived, he told them about the other two and miraculously they found them both. We are forever in their debt! Our older dog was unscathed but the other puppy—little Gram—had burns on his leg and was struggling to breathe.
Gram joined our family to help my 10-year-old daughter who struggles with ADHD & ODD. When we brought Gram home, they instantly fell in love with each other and he’s been such a help to her ever since. He reassures her and makes her feel safe. He sleeps with her every night and follows her around to make sure she is okay. The support he has given all my children blesses us every day.
Now he’s showing my kids, really all of us, how to make the best of a difficult situation. First, he adapted to being in the strange place of the ICU in the oxygen crate. And now that he’s back with us, he’s found something that brings him joy in this brand new location (a rose bush!) and he regularly rolls on his back beside it. That may sound like nothing to you but to us he’s showing he hasn’t given up. He can still find joy. He’s the only one of us who got physically injured. If he can do this, so can we.
The help from the donors of Ellies Rainy Day Fund is a sigh of relief. It gives us one less thing to stress and worry about, so we can focus on rebuilding a place to call home for our family. I can't tell you what this exactly means to us because we can't even express the feeling after going through so many tragic events, but I can say that we are thankful for a program like this, for those who need it, because Gram probably wouldn’t have pulled through without you. Especially on behalf of my daughter, but from the rest of us as well, we want to thank you for preventing us suffering even more tragedy and loss.
