$10,000 raised for Quincy couple whose Florida home was destroyed in Hurricane Ian
QUINCY – When Ray and Sue Grasso were in their early 50s, they bought a plot of land in a 55-plus mobile home park in Englewood, Florida.
They bought a two-bedroom, two-bath mobile home and spent 25 years turning it into the perfect place to live. Ray, with experience as an electrician and in construction, added another bedroom and bathroom, his daughters said, and Sue filled the house with homemade arts and crafts.
The couple, now 76 and 73, spend half the year in Quincy's Adams Shore neighborhood living off the rental income from the Florida home, and during the other half they host family, friends and neighbors in their tight-knit Englewood, Florida, community.
Two weeks ago, Hurricane Ian ripped the roof and siding off the house and demolished the interior. The storm blasted ashore Sept. 28 along the low-lying coastal area between Sarasota and Fort Myers that's popular with retirees for its low-cost housing and typically balmy weather. Mobile home parks sit next to million-dollar houses.
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"I don't think my parents realized their area was going to be so devastated," Amy McAndrew said. "They've lost their rental property, they've lost their income. They've owned that home for 25 years. They're part of the community. There were so many memories made in that home."
The couple don't have insurance to cover the cost of rebuilding. It was hard to find an insurance company that would insure a mobile home at all, McAndrew said, and what policies they could find were too expensive.
"It was beautiful. When they bought it, it was just a regular mobile home, but dad ... transformed it to a three-bedroom, three-bath with a pergola and a shed," Tara Galligan, the Grassos' other daughter, said. "My mother spent many, many hours on the art and crafts in the home. It was made by them, it was a home, and now it's just gone. Everything there was just so 'them.'"
After the storm, McAndrew and Galligan set up a GoFundMe page for anyone who knew their parents to donate to the Grassos' goal of buying a new modular home to put on their lot. Since the site was launched Oct. 1, more than $10,200 has been donated.
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"The amount of support people have given is just incredible," McAndrew said. "They were crying their eyes out. My mom was asking if she could have everyone over for dinner. There have been 70-something donors and she's convinced she's going to make them all chicken pies."
In the 25 years since they moved to Englewood, the worst weather event the Grassos experienced was a lost carport in Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The idea of rebuilding is overwhelming to her parents and to the entire community, McAndrew said.
"This was their happy place," she said.
For more information or to donate, visit gofundme.com.
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Reach Mary Whitfill at mwhitfill@patriotledger.com.
This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Quincy raises $10,000 for neighbors affected by Hurricane Ian
