{"id":44289,"date":"2024-04-16T19:16:46","date_gmt":"2024-04-16T23:16:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=44289"},"modified":"2024-04-16T19:16:56","modified_gmt":"2024-04-16T23:16:56","slug":"84-year-old-lakeland-woman-honored-by-communitys-generosity-after-losing-home-to-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2024\/04\/16\/84-year-old-lakeland-woman-honored-by-communitys-generosity-after-losing-home-to-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"84-year-old Lakeland woman honored by community&#8217;s generosity after losing home to fire"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A\u00a0Lakeland\u00a0woman is without a home after a devastating fire tore through hers earlier this year. Still, now the generosity and kindness of others are turning her unfortunate situation around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"932\" height=\"470\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 932px) 100vw, 932px\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/00003.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-44290\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">David Lopez and his family deliver groceries to the elderly on the weekends and one of their clients is 84-year-old, Betty Frey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;He and his wife and two children&#8211;They would take the time to talk to me because I&#8217;m alone,&#8221; said Frey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"932\" height=\"470\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 932px) 100vw, 932px\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/00005.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-44291\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It was this past Saturday&nbsp;that Lopez found out Frey lost her entire home of more than 30 years in a potential electrical fire back in January. Her beloved three-year-old cat, Snow, also didn&#8217;t make it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;I was devastated for her,&#8221; said Lopez. &#8220;And shocked she was living in the conditions she was in.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Up until a few days ago, Frey had been living out of her small trailer without necessities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;If I had a home with running water and electricity, which would be heaven,&#8221; said Frey.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/00006.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-44292\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Knowing he couldn&#8217;t just walk away, Lopez posted about Frey&#8217;s situation on Facebook and many people have since reached out to help her including one person who offered to clear her property for free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;They&#8217;re bending over backwards for me, and I&#8217;ve never had anybody do that before,&#8221; said Frey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A family helped put Frey in a hotel for a week. She&#8217;s happy to know there are people out there, like Lopez, who care about others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"932\" height=\"470\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 932px) 100vw, 932px\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/00004.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-44293\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;I figured I have to do the clawing to survive. He&#8217;s made it a lot easier on me,&#8221; shared Frey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;I had grandparents and parents who always gave back to the community,&#8221; said Lopez. &#8220;I worked at the Polk County Sheriff&#8217;s Office for 16 years. The sheriff is big about giving back. I work for Brian Haas now who&#8217;s big about giving back to the community.&nbsp;It&#8217;s just who I am,&#8221; said Lopez.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And to Frey, he delivered a blessing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lopez is trying to find a single-wide mobile home for Frey so she can continue to live on her property. Click&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/f\/support-bettys-journey-to-a-new-home?utm_campaign=p_lico+share-sheet-first-launch&amp;utm_content=share_ai_control&amp;utm_medium=copy_link&amp;utm_source=customer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here&nbsp;<\/a>to donate to her GoFundMe.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A\u00a0Lakeland\u00a0woman is without a home after a devastating fire tore through hers earlier this year. Still, now the generosity and kindness of others are turning her unfortunate situation around. David&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44290,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[8191],"class_list":["post-44289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-84-year-old-lakeland-woman-honored-by-communitys-generosity-after-losing-home-to-fire"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}