Slab Fork family seeks funding for new home

RALEIGH COUNTY, W.Va. (WVVA) - Not a day has gone by in the last four years that Rachel and Donald Pack haven’t thought about what their home looked like when they moved in a decade ago.

“Each room had its own theme,” Rachel recalled. “The kitchen was like a- I like the primitive stuff- so it was like the apple theme, and the living room was patriotic, you know, Americana. You know, each room had its own theme, and, you know, the house was beautiful.”

Today, those fond memories have been replaced with dread as that same house falls in around them.

“If we have to go to the doctor, we want to stay out as long as we can because we just don’t want to come home to this, and it used to not be like that,” Rachel tells WVVA. “When you had a roof, a nice roof, over your head, and it got taken away because of health issues and everything... you just don’t want to come back because all it does is depress you. It’s depressing to come in this house and look at it and remember what it used to look like, and you look at it now, and our ceiling is in our floor...Who wants to come home to that?”

This decline in the couple’s livelihood started in 2019. Rachel suffered a stroke that year and lost her job. Not too long after, Donald lost his as well. Next, their car broke down, leaving them with no steady income and no transportation. For more than a year, Donald says he walked three-and-a-half hours to and from a nearby McDonald’s to work. Unfortunately, he says that was not sustainable.

Because of these circumstances, the Packs have lived without heat, electricity or running water for the last four years. They wash dishes and shower with creek water, cook off a small grill and heat their home with limited kerosene.

“We have six blankets on our bed right now, and I’m not talking thin blankets,” Rachel shared. “I’m talking really thick blankets, you know, so that we can stay warm.”

“And when we’re low [on kerosene], we won’t run it during the day time, you know...just at night when we’re sleeping,” Donald added.

The husband and wife say every day is a struggle, but they know there is always one thing to be thankful for: each other.

“Without her, it’s hard to tell where I’d be right now,” Donald said as he held his wife. “We just, you know, help each other out and try to keep each other motivated.”

Rachel says they often have to distract themselves from the truth of their deteriorating home.

“We’ll play games with each other. We’ll play cards. You know, we do crafts together. We read. We read our Bible and study and, you know, that’s what keeps us going.”

Because they don’t have children, aren’t disabled, and don’t meet certain requirements, the Pack family has met a significant struggle trying to receive funding to better their living situation. Recently, their roof has begun to cave in in several rooms as a result of an ongoing leak, and their basement floods regularly.

Amanda Hammons is a community advocate who has been working with the family since 2021. While the home is past the point of repair, Hammons and other advocates have been sourcing grant money to help purchase a trailer and place it on the property. The family recently received $3,000 from the John David Southern Appalachia Labor School in Fayette County, which is going toward the project.

“Rachel will often tell me about her kitchen and how she liked to cook meals every day and how they would cuddle in front of the TV together, and those types of things make me just dream of a better future for them,” Hammons shared. “You know, I think we are all just one unfortunate circumstance away from the same situation, and that’s what this family is to me...”

While the Packs hope for that better future, Hammons says funding continues to be their biggest setback. She explains that it has been extremely difficult for her to find grant funding for rural Raleigh County; however, she is not giving up on giving the Packs a new home.

The family has set up a GoFundMe so that neighbors, friends and even strangers can donate to their cause. The money will go toward securing the trailer, towing it to Slab Fork, and its final placement on the property.

The goal has been set at $1,500. As of Thursday, Jan. 18, donations reached $250.

Copyright 2024 WVVA. All rights reserved.