Getting folks back into homes: Trailer donation nurtures bodies and souls

Many Appalachians lean on their faith for strength during a crisis, but one family along the Pigeon River near Clyde found echoes of their spirituality all around after they watched their home destroyed in recent flooding brought on by Hurricane Helene.

“The good Lord left us here for a reason, I really believe it,” said Frances Wright, 67, after describing the narrow escape she and her husband Frank and son Wayne experienced. 

The Wrights fled their trailer home at the Birchwood Trailer Park with moments to spare on September 27, reaching high ground nearby with their eight dogs in tow and not much more. They watched as the river filled the trailer, lifted it up, and set it back down in the adjacent Emmanuel Baptist Church parking lot, where they thought it would roll over, but it just settled. Fifteen homes in the neighborhood were destroyed.

Frances shed some tears at the memory, and waved an arm at the now distant Pigeon. “We just watched all of it go on down the river,” she said.

What came in the hours, days and weeks that followed, though, as the community rallied to their aid, only reinforced their faith.

After the water began to subside, Frank and Wayne, who over the course of their lives have lived through six floods between them, couldn’t bear to go inside their home of almost 15 years. Frank remembered his house flooding as a child, and his father being broken by it, saying “it’s hard – we’ve worked so hard to have a home and these things, and now it’s been destroyed.” His Dad couldn’t go back inside, and Frank felt the same way.

Yet Frances, who has a hard time getting around, hoped to recover a couple of things she held dear. She had a curio cabinet full of porcelain angels, and she asked neighbors who came after the flood to help to search the rubble. They found the cabinet.

“You know, not one angel was missing,” she said. “Not one.”

She also wanted a birdhouse that had been a gift from her mother in law. “I said I’ve got to get that bird house mama Dessie Lee gave me – I’ve got to have it – and here they came back with it! And even the dust was still on it! I said thank God.”

Those keepsakes and their dogs were all the family had left, but they openly expressed gratitude nonetheless. “If it wasn’t for God you wouldn’t have anything,” said Frank. 

Now they have a new place to live.

First, though, they spent three weeks tent camping with other survivors at the trailer park. Frank, 65, a dishwasher at Shoney’s in Waynesville, never stopped working. Wayne, who cleans industrial buildings in Asheville, stayed with Frances, 67.

Word got around and assistance began to trickle in. They’ve had help from churches, and Frank’s employer brought supplies. A friend’s employer brought things too. But when the Wrights were away to bathe or work, people stole from them, and the weather turned cold. Frances’s health isn’t so good.

And that’s when an array of friends, organizations, resources and even strangers came together to make things better for this family.

Last week, Mountain Projects Director Patsy Davis and community volunteer Lorelei Garnes stood near the cluster of tents, discussing what to do. 

It was a tight spot. A hotel was out of the question, because the Wrights have eight dogs and they needed shelter for more than a night or two.

Davis and Garnes knew that acquaintances of the Wrights, a young couple in the Saunook community, had room on their land and were working to secure tiny homes to place there for them, but everyone knew that could take weeks or even months. So how could it come together?

The James family

Austin and Rachel James have known the Wrights for some while. They’re in their late 20s, and Austin was in his teens when he and Frank worked together at Hardees. They’ve been buddies since then. Rachel is a health professional, and has provided care for the family on and off for a decade or so.

One of the things that impressed her about Frank was his devotion to Frances. 

“Any time it was a birthday, holiday, Mother’s Day, Christmas, he would make sure he went and got Miss Frances a gift,” she said. “He is very devoted.” 

And generous, Rachel said. “They would help anybody any time of day,” she said. “Give the shirt off their back. They’re precious people, but other people take advantage of them when they have a chance.”

So when the opportunity came to help them, the James’s didn’t think twice.

“Of all people they deserve it,” Rachel said.

The little parcel of land the James’s are sharing is a short 100 yards from their house, with a pretty view up to the glowing cross on Mount Lynn Lowery. And it meets one very specific criteria Wayne and Frank made clear: “this time we don’t want to be nowhere near water.”

The Fowler Family

The solution to all came down to a phone call, and Ron Fowler, of Cashiers, was on the other end. Fowler is a landscaper and Christmas Tree farmer, and he had a travel trailer he no longer needed. Fowler had followed a winding path of leads through pastors and a cousin to reach Davis at Mountain Projects, and they’d discussed whether he could help.

He told her he and his family would pray about it and they’d talk again.

But that was before Davis met the Wrights, and when she did, it all became clear. She called him right back, and asked him to donate and deliver the trailer, and he agreed.

So, Wednesday afternoon, Fowler drove down the curvy mountain from Glenville towing a 40-foot fifth wheel, his dog Sophie at his side. Tagging along behind were his parents and his 101-year-old grandmother, providing backup on a beautiful day. Fowler pulled the trailer up to the James family land, set it up, leveled it with some effort, and a little while later helped a small crowd welcome Frank and Frances Wright and their son Wayne to a temporary home, out of the weather.

Fowler didn’t know exactly what the day would bring when he arrived, but it became clear when he was thanked by the tearful Frances and he met everyone else involved.

“This is what it’s all about,” Fowler said. “This family has a lot more needs than me, and this is a start for them. My family and I are certainly thankful to be involved.”

When the James family receives the soon-expected tiny homes, the Wrights will move into those, and Mountain Projects will use the donated travel trailer to meet another family’s needs.

“We couldn’t be more grateful for everyone who has helped,” said Davis, of Mountain Projects. “This is one of many examples of people who have unselfishly given so much to help flood survivors.”

As for the Wrights, they’re just ready to begin the process of rebuilding their lives, in part with the help of their new volunteer family.

“There is kind people in the world,” said Frances. “Everybody who helped us is our family and friends now.”

Frank agreed. “God said we’re all brother and sister inside,” he said. “Some people don’t believe that, but we are.”