Heather's Heroes

 

 

 The Original Story

 

 

 

Heather Whaley is a US Army Veteran, the mother of two beautiful girls Madison, 15 and Olivia, 8, and is also a recent widow.

 

Heather served in the US Army for four years and left the military to raise her family with the love of her life, Kelly Whaley. Kelly and Heather were like most working couples with children, trying hard to make ends meet and working towards their goal of home ownership.

 

Kelly took a job at Kroger’s Bakery in Columbus in April, 2012. He commuted between Columbus, OH and Vienna, WV, often working overtime and trying to save money with the long commute.  Heather works for Blue Cross/Blue Shield.  After all of their hard work and dedication they decided it was time to start making that American dream of home ownership come true.

 

The family decided to relocate to Circleville, OH to be near Kelly’s job, Heather applied to her employer for approval to work from home, knowing that approval would take a few months.  Their dream of home ownership came true in November 2013 when Kelly and Heather bought their first home in Circleville, OH. Their goal was to fix up this home over the next few years until their oldest daughter Madison graduated from high school.  They were taking steps to prepare themselves and their children for a brighter future.

 

With Heather’s application to work from home not yet approved, Kelly moved into their new home in December 2013; Heather and their two girls stayed behind with her parents until she was approved for her employers’ work at home program.  In February 2014, Heather’s father took ill and was hospitalized.  That month, Heather and the girls were finally able to move into their new home and her mother also  moved in with them to be near her father, who was recovering nearby. 

 

Finally, it looked like Heather’s family would be together at last. However, during the time that Heather’s father was ill, Kelly was not feeling quite right.  He guessed this was due to the stress of moving into a new home and helping to take care of everything while Heather’s father was ill. On April 1^st, 2014 however, Heather took him to the emergency room.

 

Kelly’s chest was swollen and he had pressure in his abdomen. After multiple tests including a CT scan, Kelly was diagnosed with cancer.  After spending a week in the hospital, Kelly was released and ordered to come back the following week to start chemotherapy.  The next day, Heather rushed Kelly to the hospital due to serious complications at home. The doctors found multiple blood clots in his lungs and legs.  After two weeks, it was determined that the cancer was spreading at an alarming rate and his kidneys were failing.  Kelly was diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer but was unable to receive chemotherapy.  He went into hospice care and passed away two days later with his wife and children by his side.  He died less than one month from the date he was diagnosed, just shy of his 39^th birthday.

 

During Kelly’s last few weeks, he told Heather to do what she needed to do to get the girls back to West Virginia so that their daughters could be with their friends, and for all of them to be near her parents. 

 

Heather contacted a real estate agent and was told because they’d just bought the home that even if she received a full-price offer, she would have to bring a considerable amount of money to the table in order to sell her home. If she did not get a full-price offer she would have to make up the difference and perhaps even have a short sale. Desperate to find help, Heather contacted Shell Brodnax, the CEO of the Real Estate Staging Association® (RESA®) to ask about home staging.  

 

Shell Brodnax knew that this situation was something that RESA could help with, since RESA promotes giving back to the community;  many RESA chapter members pool their resources to do pro-bono projects to help others in need.  However, there were no RESA chapters in Heather’s area, but Shell was determined to help Heather.  She reached out to a local home stager named Lori Murphy and told her about Heather’s story.  Shell asked Lori to take the lead on the ground locally and Shell would head things up at RESA headquarters, so that together they can do what needs to be done.

 

Lori Murphy previewed the property in order to help develop an action plan.   RESA’s goal is to provide Heather’s home the upgrades and attention that it needs in order to sell quickly. This will not only help Heather sell the home, but could also potentially eliminate a short sale or the necessity to bring in money out of pocket at closing.  RESA hopes to grant Kelly’s wish of getting his family back to West Virginia.

 

To view this home on the MLS and for contact information for viewing please click here.

 

With just a few phone calls, some amazing heroes have stepped forward to help:

 

 

Shell Brodnax

Click to read more about Shell Brodnax

 

 

  

 

 

Lori Murphy

Project Coordinator and will be doing the home staging.

 

www.elementonehomestaging.com

Click to read more about Lori Murphy

  

 

 

Lori  Hicks, REALTOR

Listing agent. Lori is providing her services 100% Pro-Bono 

 

Hicks Elite Realty Professionals

www.lori-hicks.com

Click to read more about Lori Hicks 

  

 

 

Sherol Saxton 

HER Realtors

http://www.herrealtors.com/SherolSaxton-Mulligan

 

 

  

 

 

Tom Karavolos, President

First Ohio Title Insurance Agency
77 East Nationwide Blvd.
Columbus, Ohio 43215

Rodney Middendorf will be donating 100% of his services to photograph the property so that it can be listed on the MLS.

 

R. Middendorf Media, LLC

www.rmiddendorf.com

 

 
 

 

Jery Quarles, Industrial Solutions - Handyman Services
740-5716845
jery.quarles@gmail.com
 
Jery donated many supplies and products and gave a generous discount for the labor; he and his team:
Repaired and replaced:

• Ceiling tiles, chimney flashing
• Painted: entire exterior, interior walls, window trim and baseboards
• Replaced: front storm door, lighting fixtures throughout entire home, outlets and covers, switch place covers, laid vinyl flooring in dining room, kitchen and office area
• Installed shutters on the home
• Made minor repairs needed
• Installed mini blinds throughout the home

Tony Evans, V.P. Evans Carpet Junk Yard - donated part of the carpet
665 North Hague Ave.
Columbus, Ohio 43204
614-272-5630
http://www.carpetjunkyard.com/

Ken Dulaney
3B Carpet & Floor Covering
304-485-7847
Ken provided the remainder of the carpet at cost and came from Parkersburg, WV to install all of the carpet.

 

Note worthy: Jerry Goodson, Jery Quarles and team, and Ken Dulaney did their parts on their own time; working in the evenings and weekends after their "regular" jobs.

Sherwin Williams 5 Gallons of Paint

Manager - Alan
Columbus store #1118
7370 Sawmill Rd Ste B
Columbus, OH, 43235
(614) 761-3667
 

Sherwin Williams 5 Gallons of Paint

Manager - Glenn
Circleville store - #1915
1260 N Court St
Circleville, OH, 43113 

Jerry Goodson - donated many hours of painting

 

 

Heather proudly served her country and Kelly sacrificed to give his family the American dream.  We hope to be able to give back to Heather and Kelly by getting their property up-to-date, staged, and ready to sell. Please consider helping us!  We hope to address all of the needs of the home so that it sells quickly and so Heather will not have to come up with additional funds to close the sale.  We want to give Heather and her girls the best possible start for a new life.

 

We thank you from the bottom of our hearts, and we look forward to sharing our progress on Heather’s Heroes project with you!