U.S. Army veteran Teresa Birge lost her Oklahoma home of 40 years and everything she owned inside ten days before Christmas due to a fire.
“It was just like everything you ever had was gone in just a few hours,” Birge told KJRH.
As an Army veteran, Birge never felt hopeless until the fire consumed her home.
“I was about to give up on everything, a month ago, I didn’t know what I was gonna [do],” she said.
But things changed for the better when fellow veteran Robert Lint, who was working on a project for homeless veterans, heard of her plight.
Lint said he knew of a gentleman who had two trailers that could be used for veterans at no cost.
He reached out to Birge, and within ten days, Birge had a fully-furnished two-bedroom mobile home.
Birge said that although her replacement home will never replace her old home, she is grateful for having a place to live.
“It’s amazing, and it is heartfelt, and you feel it, yeah, I feel it,” Birge said.
Birge is not the only U.S. veteran to lose a home to a fire and receive support from the community.
A U.S. Army veteran and his family from Kentucky lost their home to a fire in December 2020, but the Louisville Veterans’ Club offered their support in their time of need, WDRB reported.
And in March 2020, a veteran lost everything in a fire, including his late mother’s ashes. Friends, neighbors, and city council members stepped in to donate clothes and shoes, WJBK reported.