Prayers and patience: Beaufort woman’s home repaired months after Hurricane Dorian
Just months before Hurricane Dorian side-swept Beaufort County in September, 64-year-old Jacqueline Garvin used most of her savings to repair the roof on her house.
She’s lived there for more than two decades, and the property has been in her family for at least three generations.
She remembers sitting on the porch with her mom, grandmother, and other family members listening as they told stories of their time growing up and living in the Lowcountry.
More recently, Garvin, who works as a hospital assistant at the Port Royal Veterinary Hospital nearby, has opened her home as a safe haven to at-risk teens.
Garvin’s roots run deep in this place, so when disaster struck she refused to give up.
THE STORM
This fall when most of the county was spared by Dorian, its rainstorms re-opened a hole in Garvin’s newly repaired roof.
Water poured in, damaging the majority of her property.
Garvin, who had evacuated, returned to find a shell of a home.
“I was devastated,” she said in a recent interview. “I didn’t know what to do. I really didn’t know what to do.”
Her family was trying to persuade her to leave, but she didn’t want to.
“This is my home,” she said. “I love being on the river. I love being here.”
Garvin turned to the Internet and social media for help. She eventually found NeedServ and filled out an application.
NeedServ is “progressive web app” that brings volunteers and resources together to serve those in need across the nation, said Annette Girman, NeedServ co-founder and executive director.
“It’s a conduit to bring together those who want to help and don’t know how with people who need help and don’t know where to find it,” Girman said.
THE RESPONSE
After connecting with Garvin, NeedServ was able to organize parishioners from St. Helena Anglican Church in Beaufort to seal the roof with tarps until repairs could be made.
Garvin prayed a lot, and practiced her patience.
Later, the St. Francis Center on St. Helena Island donated building materials, Under One Roof provided a $2,000 grant for repairs and volunteers to do the manual labor, and donations from Habersham residents to NeedServ were used to complete the work, which wrapped up recently.
“It was literally people coming together from different avenues to help someone in need in the community,” Girman said.
Richard Drake, founder and CEO of Under One Roof, said Girman brought Garvin’s story to his organization’s attention.
Under One Roof was founded in Beaufort in 2010 and is a nonprofit organization that repairs and modifies homes of residents 62 years and older so they can safely and comfortably “age in place,” Drake said.
The rainwater that got into the house caused mold to grow, so Drake and other volunteers replaced flooring, sheet rock, and parts of the ceiling in multiple rooms in Garvin’s home. They also completed renovations in the bathroom and did some painting and electrical work.
Garvin said there is still work to do, but she is thankful that she’s able to live in her home much more comfortably now than a few months ago.
The volunteers “are now my family,” she said. “They know I’m grateful and thankful.”
NeedServ co-founder Girman — who has lived in Beaufort with her husband, Jeff, for almost three years — said Garvin’s home was the first project NeedServ, which is based in Louisiana, has worked on in Beaufort.
“It was neat to see (Garvin) come through on the app, showing it really does connect people,” Girman said, adding that she hopes the organization is able to help many others in the future.
This story was originally published February 17, 2020 at 11:47 AM.
