IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE - ARCHIVES

Updated June 9th, 2008

THE HOUSE THAT LOVE BUILT

Okay so I don’t normally watch the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, along with most of America! Man she was so great on the Today Show, way to perky for the Evening news! Any who…..I was flipping thru channels and came across a story that caught my eye that happened to be on the CBS Evening News with correspondent Steve Hartman telling the story.  It was about a families home that was falling apart, things like a crumbling chimney and holes in the floor. This particular family had hoped to have their home repaired with the help of the TV show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition where they build needy families brand new homes. The Barclay family sent in their tape but of course the show gets a ton of tapes and they didn’t get picked. A few things to know about the Barclay’s, the mill where the husband Jeff had been working shut down, and the mother, Sonya has breast cancer which has spread just about every place like her bones and all the way down her spine. Sonja however has a positive attitude and says she will beat it. The Barclay’s have four children. This is where the story took an incredible twist and had my eyes filled with tears. Two of Sonya’s friends thought there had to be a way to get the Barclay’s a new house. Mind you they live in Old Town, Maine which is not a wealthy community. However when word got out about what had happened, people started offering whatever they had. 22 days later a new home was built, yes 22 days later!! More than 400 people volunteered to build the house many who didn’t even know the Barclay’s! More proof that there are still compassionate selfless giving people in this world. I think more than we want to believe there are because the negative angry people get more of the attention in the news so we forget there is another side to the world, a positive side with good hearted down to earth people who truly care. All of those people who built this house, free of charge, truly changed a families life, seeing Sonya with no hair from the cancer, tubes in her nose to breath better, smiling and crying tears of joy, you can’t help but get teary eyed yourself knowing how much joy has been brought to this family during a true hardship. Publicizing more of these stories would help this to be A Wonderful Life!

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