Aug 7, 2008 5:30 pm US/Eastern
50 Years, 50 Families: The Grimm Family
WHITAKER (KDKA) ―
Seven years ago, a local community lost a beloved volunteer firefighter when he died of a heart attack at the age of 36.
His wife and children are still dealing with the loss in a very real way. But this week, they are the recipient of the Roomful Express 50 Years, 50 Families program.
Patrick Grimm never got to see the dimples on his youngest son, Cameron. Grimm died when his wife, Jackie, was three months pregnant.
"It was terrible," she says. "It was the worst thing I ever went through."
Jackie's next-door neighbor, Marge Kasper, helps out Jackie, her sons and daughter, Ashley, who is away at college.
"It just breaks my heart because the boys just need him so bad and Patrick knew him so well, he has a hard time adjusting to everyday life without him," says Kasper.
The Grimm family likes to spend time together in their backyard with friends and neighbors.
Kasper says Jackie devotes her whole life to her children and helping her parents and other relatives, driving them wherever they need to go.
"She's really the best, kindest, compassionate person I've ever met and I'm already 60," says adds Kasper. "I've never heard her complain and I've never heard her say a bad word about someone and you don't come across that too often."
With a fixed income, the Grimms just live with broken furniture, doors taped shut, drawers with no handles. Jackie sleeps on the couch when her daughter's home.
But now, they'll be getting $3,000 in new furniture from Roomful Express.
Kasper says it will be the first new thing Jackie's ever gotten for herself in the seven years she's known her.
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