When Elizabeth Gower, a Home Depot associate in Atlanta, saw a call from her 17-year-old son, she knew something was wrong.
“I thought that was odd,” explains Elizabeth. “Normally, he would text me.”
She answered and heard the voice of a paramedic on the other end. Austin had been in a high-speed, catastrophic car accident.
“The man on the phone said, ‘Is this Austin’s mom?’” recalls Elizabeth. “Then he said, ‘It’s bad, it’s very, very bad.’ That was the single hardest moment of my life as a parent.”
Over the next few weeks, doctors at Atlanta’s Grady Hospital worked to put Austin’s body back together. Elizabeth never left her son’s bedside, thankful that The Homer Fund took away the stress of worrying about bills while she was out of work for 22 days.
“No one expects a catastrophic event to happen in their life and has that kind of money sitting aside,” says Elizabeth. “We were no different than any other kind of family. The Homer Fund took that stress away from us and allowed us to focus on providing the absolute best care for our 17-year old son.”
