Slidell community uniting to help woman find safe new home
SLIDELL, La. (WGNO) — A Slidell woman has been through tough times.
“To maintain them, that’s what took the longest, but then they started leaking on that side. Guess what? Our bed never got wet,” said Darla Haro.
Through the rain or the sweltering Louisiana heat, Haro was determined to keep the home she shared with her late husband from falling apart.
“He’s the one that gave me strength and many times I swayed, but I got back up. I never did fall,” said Haro.
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She says it’s the angel who left a letter in her mailbox that changed her life.
“I’m watching this poor lady on the ladder and I’m saying, ‘Why is nobody helping this woman?'” said Norman Chapetta.
Chappetta noticed Haro’s roof and felt the need to help. She says the timing was right as she had just been reported to St. Tammany Parish about the condition of her home.
“Took me three months to respond to him because I thought it was a scam. It was so beautiful and then what happened, I called him. Thank God I did,” said Harlo.
Chappetta says the home has to be torn down. In the meantime, Haro has been staying elsewhere with the help of the community.
Slidell Councilman Trey Brownfield has also stepped in.
“As we stand in this house, and we see all these Walmart bags glued to the ceiling by great stuff, you see how resilient she is, how she has persevered,” said Brownfield.
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Two weeks have gone by, and a GoFundMe for Haro has accumulated thousands of dollars. It will go toward funding the demolition and building of what will be her new home on the same property.
“I made a promise to her we are going to build you a brand new home and it’s going to be paid for,” said Chapetta.
“The person that she is is making the community have buy in and saying we are going to help her, and it’s just a beautiful thing,” said Brownfield.
“If I didn’t have this help, I don’t know where I would be at, because I couldn’t have done much more. That was getting ready to go because when I put my hand against the wall at the bottom, I’d go through it,” said Haro.
Donations can be made to Haro through a GoFundMe organized by Chapetta.
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