Fort Myers family blessed with new home

Writer: Sommer Senne
Published: Updated:
Myrtle Dillard's new home
Myrtle Dillard and her family were blessed with a new home on Tuesday. CREDIT: WINK News

In about sixty days, Myrtle Dillard‘s home went from being unlivable to brand new.

“I’m so happy and grateful,” said Dillard.

Myrtle lived in a run-down home on Lincoln Boulevard for 33 years but couldn’t afford the needed repairs.

“They were in a 100-year-old home that was basically rotting into the ground,” said Randy Thibaut, board member of Lee BIA Builders Care. “There was no groundwater for showers, no air conditioning.”

Thibaut and Mark Stevens, president of Stevens Construction, wanted to give Myrtle, her daughter, and twin granddaughters the home they deserved.

They partnered with more than 38 subcontractors and suppliers to get the job done for free.

Myrtle’s first reaction?

“This is gorgeous,” she said.

The home is now a 3-bedroom, 2-bath with a new living room, fridge stocked with food from the Harry Chapin Food Bank, and a Dallas Cowboys’ themed bedroom, the family’s favorite team.

Myrtle’s granddaughter Justice was most excited to show WINK News her bedroom because she and her twin sister Joveda had never had their own room before.

“It makes me realize how little power I have and truly how much power God has to make this all come together,” Thibaut said.

Community members came to celebrate Myrtle and her family and check out the new home, and Myrtle sat on her porch to take it all in.

“It feels great,” she said. “I didn’t know I had this many people on my side. I really didn’t.”

Myrtle said her favorite part of the home is her handicap-accessible bathroom.

The cost for the home was around $150,000 and about 2,100 hours of labor went into building the home.

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