RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — As we approach the two-month mark since Helen slammed into western North Carolina, the recovery process is only beginning, but a Raleigh woman is working to make the holidays a little brighter for people who live in a nursing home hit hard by the storm.
Since Helene devastated western North Carolina, Amanda Mount has built a special connection with the people who live at Becky’s Rest Home in Fletcher.
“Having no Internet and no home phone has made it very difficult to understand what’s going on,” she noted. “A lot of them don’t have family close by, so they’ve not had anyone come and visit them.”
After stopping by the nursing home shortly after the storm, and seeing a desperate need for supplies, Mount has made multiple trips to deliver donations of adult diapers, medical devices, and hygiene items.
“Every time I go up there, the residents are so happy to see someone,” she noted. “They’re waving at me from the front porch.”
Determined to make sure the residents have what they need, Mount came up with a plan.
“I’m going to adopt this nursing home. These grandparents are now my grandparents, so I now have technically 22 grandparents,” she said.
She wants to make sure each one of them has something special this Christmas. She says their wants are pretty basic. “One of them asked for a new set of sheets, a new blanket… new socks.”
Since Mount first shared her desire to help nursing home residents in western North Carolina, the community has stepped up in a big way.
Now, she hopes to fill residents’ mailboxes and rooms with holiday cards to brighten what can be a lonely time for people in nursing homes, especially after a disaster like Helene. “To know that, even though they’re not my grandparents, that they, they feel the love of a grandchild, they feel the love of a community is so, so special, because otherwise a lot of them are forgotten,” she stated.
She hopes getting cards and gifts will remind them of this simple message: “You are not forgotten. You are loved, and you’re valued.”
You can send cards to:
Becky’s Rest Home
316 Lower Brush Creek Rd,
Fletcher, NC 28732
Mount also created this wish list of gifts and hygiene items for residents. https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/2NVCVJ7M7Z997