BREATHITT COUNTY, Ky. (LEX 18) — From Adair County to the narrow, winding roads of Eastern Kentucky, a special delivery made its way to a Breathitt County couple Friday.
Doug and Rena Allen’s home of 35 years was destroyed last summer in last summer’s flood. Since then, they spent time living in a tent, in a car and eventually an RV. And then finally, on Friday, their new home arrived.
“It is just beautiful,” Rena Allen said of the home. “It’s the prettiest tiny home that I’ve ever seen in my life and I’m happy that it’s mine. I love it.”
Rena Allen cried as her new 200-square-foot tiny home was delivered, a gift organized by Nancy Fouser of Versailles.
A full tour of the home can be viewed below:
“Hearing about the flooding in Eastern Kentucky, it bothered me from the beginning,” Fouser said. “I know when something like that happens people send clothes and food, but then I keep reading and seeing on the news how bad things still are. I thought ‘what in the world, what can we do?’”
Fouser’s friend Danny Reeves of Columbia, Ky., designed, built and delivered the labor of love. A local church and the Rousseau Volunteer Fire Department helped connect Fouser with the Allens, and on Friday the whole plan came together.
“It just brings tears to your eyes because I’ve never met her in my life until today,” Rena Allen said of Fouser. “It’s just amazing, you know, what a prayer can do.”
After a difficult nine months, Rena Allen said she’ll never lose her home to a flood again. They plan to keep it on the trailer it was delivered in so they can easily move it should flood waters ever return.
“I won't lose what I got anymore,” Rena Allen said.
Fouser, who organized the donation, isn’t done trying to bring homes to people in need. She said she’s working on starting an organization called Freedom Homes.
“The reaction of the people, to have something to move in, was just overwhelming,” Fouser said. “We turned down this drive and we all started to cry, we just could not believe it.”
