Single Mom Tornado Survivor & Special Needs Daughter Move Into $1.5M Home
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COLLEYVILLE (CBSDFW.COM) - What would make a person open the doors to his vacant, $1.5 million house to homeless victims of the tornado in Garland?
Millionaire Ron Sturgeon has two reasons. One, he was homeless after his dad died when he was a young man and knows how desperate a feeling it is.
And two, he's a dog lover who was moved by pictures of the animals who suffered after the storms.
"I was just moved because I'm such a dog person," Sturgeon said. "But then I saw the pictures of the devastation and I don't know, I think a lightbulb just went off in my head and I said 'I've got two big houses sitting vacant -- surely I can help somebody that would need housing'."
Today, Amber Jenkins, her mom Catherine and her aid dog, Maggie began moving into Sturgeon's home with the promise to begin looking for a place
of their own and to pay $1 a month rent. Amber is a quadriplegic and Maggie has become a helpful and loved member of the family. They've been bouncing around family members' home since a tornado destroyed the Garland house they were renting, leaving them with next to nothing.
"It got really hectic," Amber Jenkins said. "Just trying to find a place to stay and find a new van."
Sturgeon is loaning them the vacant, 8,000 square foot home. It has five bedrooms and baths, six fireplaces a seven car garage and doggie doors that open automatically when the dog wearing a special collar approaches.
"I just can't even believe this house," Amber Jenkins said looking around the vast living room. "It's wild! I've never even imagined a house like this. We walked in, the chandeliers in the ceilings, there's a shower that rains down from above. It's just insane."
Best of all, the family has something you can't put a price on: peace of mind. And that means Maggie too.
"She really did seem traumatized," Jenkins said of Maggie. "She's been sleeping a lot. And just very uncertain every time we got in the car she didn't know we were going or whether we were coming back.
"Ever since we've been in this house, the past couple of hours she has been running around outside, I have not seen her this happy in weeks," Jenkins said with a broad smile. "So it's been really nice."
Amber's mother hopes that between rent saved and a GoFundMe account she will have enough to buy a home to accommodate her daughter's special needs so Amber won't have to go into a nursing home when her mom dies.
"It's a little sad that they're even here," Sturgeon said. "But it's so cool because they never thought they were going to live someplace like this. It's a pretty heartfelt moment."
Sturgeon has a second, larger, vacant home he will also lend out to tornado victims in coming days.
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