Joy of Christmas

On Birchdale, in a manufactured home, on a plot of land that now says “sold,” a story is unfolding.

Betty Gibson calls it a miracle. The fifth miracle of her life, falling in place just after the births of all four of her children, she decides.

She still can’t believe all of this is really happening. She still can’t believe that a USDA Rural Development loan led her to Brewbaker’s Housing & RV in Onaway, which led her to the front porch of this manufactured home on a plot of land that now says “sold.”

Because for years, it was like Gibson was standing on the outside of a snowglobe and peering in at the perfect home with the perfect yard and the way the snow falls perfectly all around.

And then on Tuesday, she stopped by her new home and saw all of the empty rooms. She chatted with Matt Pasella, the salesman from Brewbaker’s. She picked up her son and daughter from St. Mary Cathedral School. And she returned to the manufactured home on Birchdale. When she turned the knob to the front door this time, though, she walked into the unimaginable.

She had no idea that the staff from Brewbaker’s, after learning Gibson had no furniture, after learning that her kids were sleeping on the floor, gathered items together in just a couple of weeks: furniture, dishes, a Christmas tree, presents for her two younger children, a washer and dryer, cabinets filled with food, a television.

“How do you tell someone thank you for this?” Gibson asks, her hands cupped around a black mug of coffee. She puts the mug down and points to the couch, loveseat, kitchen table, chairs, and to the first thing she saw when she walked in, the china cabinet.

“It was beautiful,” she says of the china cabinet. “The light was turned on and all I could think of was the kids’ stuff I wanted to put on the shelves.”

Just a handful of years ago, Susan Altman, a family independent specialist from the Montmorency County Dept. of Human Services, introduced Gibson to Jenine Repke with Catholic Human Services. Together Repke and Gibson began filling out the paperwork for a USDA Rural Development loan, a program assisting very low and low-income families with the purchase and repair of homes. Last year, with a loan maximum of $117,493, the USDA approved four loan applications for Otsego County. In October 2005, the loan maximum was increased to $150,000.

Gibson was denied on her first application because of her credit, but she began taking budgeting classes and working on her credit. When Repke and Gibson filled out the USDA paperwork a second time, Gibson was given a certificate of eligibility.

Because Gibson was interested in a manufactured home, the USDA sent a list of company names who would accept the USDA loan. Gibson chose Brewbaker’s Housing & RV in Onaway where she met Pasella.

“She’s had a rough road and she’s worked very, very hard at cleaning up her credit,” said Pasella. He was touched by her story, by the fact that she called him every day to thank him for all of his help. He said he would try to get her a couch and a couple of end tables. But the more the employees from Brewbaker’s Housing and Brewbaker’s Furniture found out, the more they wanted to help.

“Everyone needs a boost when you’re down, and she was down,” said Pasella.

When Gibson opened the front door of the manufactured house on the plot of land with a sign that says “sold,” it was like she divided her life in half. She doesn’t want to talk about what led her to Department of Human Services or Catholic Human Services or the USDA or Brewbaker’s. That part of her life is a part of yesterday. And Gibson wants to focus on today.

“I reflected,” she says. “I started seeing what I was doing. I was looking at my life and seeing all the bad, that there was more bad than good. And I had to say. ‘ wait a minute.’”

Sitting at her new kitchen table, the sunlight slanting in through the sliding glass door, she looks out at her back deck where the flakes have settled perfectly.

“Right now, this is my fresh start,” she says.

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