The House That Care Built
Although Sonya Barclay's breast cancer has now spread to just about every place …
"It's in my bones. It's all the way down my spine," she told CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman. "I have a spot here in my pelvis."
… this wife and mother says she'll still beat it.
"That's my answer and I'm sticking to it," Barclay said. "Because I have a will and I have a determination and I have four kids."
With that stand-strong attitude and a falling-down house - replete with crumbling chimney and holes in floor - the Barclays really did seem like the perfect family for the "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" TV show, where they build needy families brand new homes.
So the Barclay's sent in a tape showing their place, their personalities and their need. Sonya's husband Jeff told how the mill where he'd been working had been shut down. Sonya told how she just wanted her kids would have a safe place to live.
Unfortunately, the show gets a lot of tapes. The Barclays did not get picked.
Enter Lana Phillips and Jennifer Dudley - good friends of Sonya. They wondered if there was another way you could get a house for a needy family.
"That sounds pretty bizarre doesn't it?" Phillips said.
"Yeah, you guys aren't a TV show!" Hartman said.
The city of Old Town, Maine, where the Barclays live, is not a wealthy community. But when word got out about what had happened, people started offering what they had.
And within just 22 days ... a home appeared - after lots of help from the community.
"I was like, 'are you kidding me?'" Barclay said. "No, 'somebody pinch me, wake me up!'"
Tonight, the Barclay's are in a brand new three-bedroom home.
It was built not for publicity - or for ratings - but simply for the Barclays.
"This to me is more than a dream come true. And it didn't take a TV show to build this house," Barclay said. "It was built out of love, compassion, and they knew that we needed it and they went ahead and did it."
For next week's Assignment America, Steve Hartman is looking for your baby photos. If you've got an especially cute one, send Steve a picture. Or, better yet, if you can sent your parental bias aside and admit your child may not be so cute - he wants those pictures, too. Just click here to send Steve an email.
