Habitat for Humanity gifts Hurricane Ian survivor a home

Christmas is over, but the spirit of giving is a year-long affair for Habitat for Humanity.

Thanks to the kindness of donors, volunteers and staff, they gave one Hurricane Ian survivor a gift 30 years in the making.

“To be here now is probably much more magic than I could ever imagine,” said 73-year-old Lillian Love, a Habitat for Humanity homeowner.

It’s been a long time since she last spent Christmas inside a home.

“It’s been more than 30 years, and that’s me stretching the truth. That was Concord. That was high school, and if I’m 70, give or take a couple of years…” she said.

It’s an answer that’s changing this year…

“I come home some days, and it’s just like, it’s really mine,” Love said.

She’s now in a Habit for Humanity home of her own after enduring Ian, the storm that took her job and livelihood on Sanibel away.

“I stood in the window, and I watched the water just take people’s cars, didn’t move them per se,” Love said.

Love wouldn’t have imagined waiting on the other side of the storm wasn’t just a house but a home.

“The magic of having my own washer and dryer. In the senior building, you pay the dollar and a half of whatever price they put on little washers and dryers to wash,” Love said, and short of paying the light bill, that washer/.dryer belongs to me.”

A home that’s filled with so much love, so much life.

“It’s been a few decades since I’ve had a tree, even as an adult,” she said.

… for a woman who has lived through it all.

Love lives in her home with her great-grandchildren and said it’s the perfect neighborhood, and she’s surrounded by everything she needs.

Since 1982, Habitat for Humanity has put 1,800 families in homes.