Kindness of strangers helps family who lost home

Vicki Stone, a single mother who was burned out of her North Charleston mobile home with her two children last month, is back in another one, complete with furniture, thanks to people who knew nothing about her other than her trouble.

She's not out of the woods yet, but is on her way.

"I'm grateful," she said this week, sitting in her living room on a donated coach. "I'm still kind of speechless. I didn't think people helped out anybody anymore. It makes me look at things a lot different."

The Post and Courier ran a story saying the Red Cross had put her family up in a motel for three days after the fire and she didn't know where to go next. At least half a dozen people called asking how they could help.

Some callers wanted to know how they could be sure she wouldn't waste money on accommodations. There was no way to tell them one way or another. A few simply went to the motel's front desk and paid her bill.

Stone ended up staying in the motel for 10 days, thanks to the kindness of strangers. Now she's living in a weatherbeaten mobile home on a dirt road just west of Park Circle.

She's paying $400 a month. The landlord told her he was lowering the rent from $700 because of her situation.

The front yard is bare brown dirt. A big tan dog stretches the chain from his doghouse to sniff visitors. Inside, the furniture is worn but clean and comfortable. The picture on the television is clear and sharp.

Community effort

Stone mentions some of the people who helped her. When she was at the motel, a "Miss Jamison" from Rural Ministries Baptist Church in North Charleston called to say she had collected $300 to help pay a deposit on a place to live. A "Miss Elizabeth" with Bethany United Methodist Church in Summerville called to say her Sunday school had collected sheets and blankets.

But Stone's biggest benefactor has been Nancy Elliott, a Mount Pleasant real-estate agent who more or less adopted her.

Elliott called Stone at the motel the day after she read the story. After meeting her, she decided to recruit her co-workers at Coldwell Banker United Realtors.

"Can you imagine how lost this mother must feel," Elliott wrote in an e-mail. "How these two children must feel? ... If we can all just put ourselves in this poor young lady's shoes for just a few minutes."

Elliott used to work for a nonprofit agency, and she wasn't exactly overwhelmed with work selling houses lately. She got a corporation that wants to remain anonymous to donate $500. Coldwell Banker United Charleston General Manager Gettys Glaze kicked in $200, and Senior Vice President Edmund Monteith gave $150.

Agents at the Mount Pleasant, Summerville and West Ashley offices donated money and furniture. Elliott gives special credit to Linda Hill in the Mount Pleasant office, who spent hours helping Stone move.

Starting over

An inspector blamed the Sept. 24 fire on faulty wiring in a bedroom air-conditioner. Stone had been living there three months with her two children, 11-year-old Raven Sanders and 12-year-old Bernard Stone. They lost everything, including her grandmother's jewelry and the flag that draped her Army veteran father's coffin.

"I worked really hard to get to the point where I was," she said. "I just finished paying off the kitchen table. I've pretty much started all over."

Stone, 33, was raised by her grandmother, who died in 2000. She got married when she was 16 and was divorced at 18. Her children are from another relationship that ended eight years ago.

Stone lost her job at McDonald's after the fire. She said she was stressed out and missed too many days. Once she got into her new place, she took the story about her situation to a manager of another restaurant, which she prefers not to name. The manager read it and hired her on the spot, she said. She bought her uniform the other day and is optimistic she will be worked into the rotation soon.

When asked where she sees herself in a couple years, she said "back in school. I want to work with old people."

Reach Dave Munday at 745-5862 or dmunday@postandcourier.com.