On the morning of Oct. 8, 2016, Bob and Brenda Hand were in a motel in Walterboro listening to the howling wind as it stripped metal siding from their building.
They realized they hadn’t evacuated far enough to escape Hurricane Matthew’s wrath, which hit Hilton Head Island as a Category 2 storm.
Despite evacuating more than an hour away from their Hilton Head Plantation home, Brenda and her husband had hoped their house escaped serious damage.
They were wrong.
Four days later, the Hands returned to what was left of their home on King William Court.
Hurricane Matthew caused several trees to fall on the garage of the Hands’ home on King William Court in Hilton Head Plantation on Hilton Head Island.[Brenda Hand Submitted photo]
Three trees had fallen on the garage; there was about 6 inches of standing water throughout their home; and 3-foot-high water marks lingered on furniture and walls. A St. Francis statue they had never seen was stranded in their backyard. They later learned it floated out of a neighbor’s courtyard across the street, went up their sloped driveway and through their damaged house.
“Everything was floating,” Bob said.
Newly replaced hardwood floors and carpets were destroyed. Clothes were covered in mold. Brenda’s blue BMW Z4 convertible, with water up to the tail pipe and green mold in the interior, was totaled.
“But anyway, we put the tarp on the garage, and then we began the process,” Brenda said.
The process of rebuilding their lives would be aided by good Samaritans and unexpected gifts along the way. The couple said a positive attitude and their faith also helped them through their seven-month ordeal.
“I believe I’m a cheerful person,” Brenda said. “What I turned to is meditation.”
The Hands’ immediate need, however, was a place to stay, as the town of Hilton Head had declared their home uninhabitable. They didn’t know at first where they would live.
Then a complete stranger came into their lives.
‘Strangers to me, but not to a friend’
Steve Garr, the Hands’ gardener, was on the phone with a client at a home on Myrtle Bank Road in Hilton Head Plantation shortly after the Hands had returned to the island and showed Garr their destroyed home.
He told the client, Jim Wiley of Pennsylvania, that the Hands’ home was the “saddest” he had come across after Matthew.
Hurricane Matthew caused several trees to fall on the garage of the Hands’ home on King William Court in Hilton Head Plantation. [Brenda Hand, submitted photo]
That changed the course of the conversation, Garr recalled.
“We gotta do something,” Wiley said. “Are they good people?”
“I said, ‘They’re some of the nicest people I’ve met down here,’” Garr replied.
“Give them my home for the next two weeks,” Wiley told him.
Garr got the keys and brought Bob and Brenda to Wiley’s house.
The only condition: They could not let Wiley’s wife know because she was concerned about strangers living in their vacation home.
“We were so happy to be able to wash our clothes, and to be able to be in bed and be comfortable,” Brenda said.
There was a pool table in the living room and hats on the mantle. It was “a real man’s house,” said Bob.
Later on, Brenda met the kind stranger for the first time. She said she was standing in the driveway of her home when a man on a bicycle pulled up with the “biggest grin” on his face.
“Brenda?” Wiley asked. “I’m Jim (Wiley).”
The two hugged, and Brenda gave him a tour of what was left of her home.
“I said to him, ‘I feel terrible. We could have left wine at (his) house; we could have left a note,’ but I was told not to do anything,” Brenda said. “And he goes, ‘Oh yeah, don’t worry about it. Don’t ever tell my wife.’”
Contacted recently by The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette, Wiley said he had no problem helping the Hands.
“They were strangers to me, but not to a friend,” Wiley said.
The generosity of total strangers, as well as from those who knew the Hands, would continue.
‘Hurricane discount’
As a builder was working to restore their home, the Hands stayed two months at an Old Fort Drive home in Hilton Head Plantation while friends of a friend were away on a trip. Brenda said they had to pay only for the utilities they used.
In December, they went to live with one of their daughters, Mary Ellen Glackin, in Orange County, California. Glackin had visited her parents three times to help with the recovery. She also practices yoga and did meditation with her mother.
With insurance money expected to flow in, the Hands began their search to replace their lost furniture and appliances. They stopped in a Pottery Barn in Orange County, hoping to find a headboard for their bed. Their daughter told the salesperson her parents’ story. A short time later, a store manager approached the family.
“The whole store is 20 percent off,” Brenda said the manager told her. “But we’re going to give you a hurricane discount of (an additional) 20 percent.”
The manager explained to the Hands that she had been evacuated three times because of California wild fires, and she understood what they were going through.
“When they said that, I honestly thought my mom was just going to burst into tears,” Glackin recalled. “It’s just the kindness of strangers.”
The Hands bought all the replacement furniture and carpets for their home at Pottery Barn that day. The company held it in a North Carolina warehouse — free of charge — until they moved back into their Hilton Head home.
$52,000 in the hole
The Hands estimate it took about $350,000 to restore their home to a livable state. About $250,000 came from insurance, and another $100,000 was out of pocket.
Like many others after Hurricane Matthew, the Hands had difficulties with their insurance company. Brenda, who has a background as a mortgage banker, thought she had sufficient insurance and didn’t anticipate obstacles.
As an example, Brenda explained, the flooded bottom kitchen cabinets could be replaced with insurance, but not the undamaged upper cabinets. If the Hands wanted matching cabinets, they had to pay for the upper ones themselves.
The Hands also expected initially to receive two insurance checks — one for $40,000 and another for $77,000 — but their insurance company sent the checks to wrong locations. Brenda said when they later returned home from California, they found the $40,000 check among the leaves and tarps on their dining room floor. Later, their daughter in California received the $77,000 check.
Brenda said she had asked the insurance company to put a stop payment on the $77,000 check, believing it was lost. She said when they received the check later, they deposited it at their bank, only to get a call from the bank’s fraud department telling them they were $52,000 overdrawn.
“I lost it with the mortgage company,” Brenda said. “When I hung up, I said, ‘That is not me.’”
Reminding herself to take a breath and remember her faith, she said her optimism returned.
“It’s just always been their point of view,” Glackin said about her parents. “The glass is never empty. Even when it’s down at the bottom, the glass is full to them.”
The couple have a support group — several friends they share dinner with every Wednesday night. Brenda said at one of those dinners, she revealed her insurance check troubles.
That’s when one of their friends offered to write a personal check to cover the overdrawn $52,000.
Brenda said she and her husband didn’t accept the offer but were amazed by their friend’s generosity. She added they eventually resolved the problem with their bank.
Giving thanks, giving back
As their house was being rebuilt, Bob and Brenda were offered a 10-day stay at a friend’s home in Palmetto Dunes, then a month-long stay in another Palmetto Dunes home. After that, a 500-square-foot condominium opened up at the Beach and Tennis Club on Folly Field Road, where they stayed a month. Later, they stayed two months in a two-bedroom condo at the Beach and Tennis Club.
“They were just so positive through it all,” said Garr, their gardener.
In May — more than seven months after Hurricane Matthew ravaged their house — the Hands finally moved back home.
In July, they hosted a party to celebrate their return and thank those who had helped them along the way. About 50 people attended the Sunday afternoon event that featured shrimp, smoked salmon and cocktails. Wiley, the Pennsylvania man who wished at the time to keep his good deed quiet so his wife wouldn’t find out, was not invited.
In late September, photos still leaned against some of the walls in the Hands’ home, waiting to be hung. Their house isn’t completely back to its pre-Matthew state, but Brenda said they’re working on it.
She said she hasn’t forgotten the daily ritual that kept her going throughout hurricane recovery: Each morning she still focuses on a positive thought and remembers how fortunate she is.
And now that they have a home again, the Hands plan to help organize an overnight stay for the homeless at All Saints Episcopal Church on Hilton Head, where they have been active. Brenda said they often help with that event several times a year but weren’t able to do so in the months immediately after Matthew because they were homeless themselves.
But they believe it’s important to give to others in their time of need — like so many others did for them.
Alex Kincaid: 843-706-8123, @AlexKincaid22
