Five Years Home

Valerie Cox wrote this after visiting with an HCRN homeowner in Lake County.

I visited with Orval Young recently. Five years ago, HCRN volunteers celebrated a home dedication with Orval at his two-bedroom home on the corner of Young and Jefferson in Middletown. He met me at the gate of his recently installed fence and led me up the steps of the front porch. He motioned for me to sit on the easy chair while he took a seat at the kitchen table. It was a warm spring day and already 85 degrees outside. He said, “I hope you aren’t too cool in here.” I asked whether he had used the air conditioning yet in his mini split system and he said, “No, it just stays nice in here.” I asked about his utility bills and he said, “the highest was about $60 when I left the air on all day.” 

He showed me a picture from his table, of him alongside two other men from the senior center, “Notice that we all have the same shirt on that day.” I asked if he missed volunteering at the Senior Center and he said, “Oh, I still volunteer there every week. I have to wear a mask, but I sweep the dining room and I also run the drip irrigation three days a week.” His eyes are bright when he talks about his time at the Senior Center and you can tell it means a great deal to him. 

I sat and we visited for about an hour. He told me stories about serving in the Army and driving vehicles in the winter in Germany, driving on snow and cobblestone roads and sometimes sliding past the turns. He tells the stories like they just happened last month… the sergeant who didn’t believe him that the tracks acted up on the snow and when he took over driving and almost drove into a limousine sitting at the corner. He mentioned the lighter that he had for his pipe smoking that was lost in the fire. He told stories of his mother growing up six miles outside Middletown who had to traipse through mud and flooded roads to get into town to go to school. 

He told me about some cancer spots that he had removed from his face and from the back of his hands. Most of them have healed up, but he’s having trouble with the one under his cuff on his right hand. But he doesn’t seem worried about it, made a little annoyed.

He still has a little red fire hydrant sitting on his windowsill that says 2015 Valley Fire Survivor. Like Orval, it’s a simple statement but a powerful reality.

Without our awesome volunteers, our outstanding donors, Orval would not be living quietly in his own home. I see the many volunteers who gave their time, their talents, and their sweat to this home. I see the donors who made this home possible. Your fingerprints are all over this home and your heart is bursting with pride at the difference that you made. Orval’s house was the first HCRN finished in Lake County. 

Orval will be 75 this year, still living a simple life, weed-eating his property, enjoying the yellow poppies that fill his backyard, faithful to volunteer at the Senior Center and still making regular visits to the local grocer’s, Hardester’s, Offices. 

His friend, Grant Hardester said, “You changed his life.” And I couldn’t agree more. You changed his life.

You can continue to make a difference in the lives of fire survivors. For more information on getting involved, visit our Volunteer Page, or Donate Today.