Family gets some help rebuilding their lives|[5/9/05]
Published 12:00 am Monday, May 9, 2005
Three years have passed since a fire burned down the home of John and Denise Hluska.
It was May 15, 2002 – the day Denise Hluska drove up to see her home engulfed in flames.
Her husband, John Hluska, was coming home from a seven-day stay offshore, where he works as a mechanic for Island Operations.
He was in Jackson buying his wife a Mother’s Day gift when he got the call that their house, which he had been renovating, was on fire.
Now, the rotisserie cooker he bought her that day is one of the few items that will go in their new home, being rebuilt at 125 Williams Road.
But there’s more. By happenstance, as the end of their three-year project neared, the Hluskas attended the 2005 Home and Garden Show two weeks ago at the Vicksburg Convention Center – and won a $5,000 grand prize makeover sponsored by Downtown Designs and The Home Depot of Vicksburg.
“I wasn’t even planning on going to the garden show,” Denise Hluska said.
And even more. Tessie Harris, owner of Downtown Designs and a co-sponsor for the prize, phoned to tell the winners about the prize, but didn’t know about the fire at the time.
A friend at the show did – and that snowballed into the idea of a more extensive project than $5,000 would provide.
“She has just been a blessing. God answers your prayers in some way or another,” Denise Hluska said of Tessie Harris.
For her part, Harris said moving beyond a simple makeover – window treatments, additional decorative elements and such – has become more of a personal mission.
“It became personal the minute I heard the winner was a victim. The more I talked to her, I realized – due to the loss of their possessions – they need a lot more than just a master bedroom,” she said. “I decided I wasn’t going to do one grand room, but scatter it about.”
Denise Hluska, who works at Goldie’s Express and for the Vicksburg Warren School District, is also a local Girl Scout troop leader.
“Her heart – she has a heart. She is grateful for anything she is given,” Harris said.
The night Hluska found out she had won the prize, Harris drove out to meet the family and saw where John Hluska has been devoting all his free time to building a home for his whole family.
John Hluska said the importance behind working so hard to build the home comes from knowing it is for his family, which includes Denise Hluska’s 75-year-old mother Marie Rogers and 43-year-old sister Roxanne Rogers and three of Denise Hluska’s four children.
“Family – the house is for our family,” he said.
While John Hluska works – sunup to sundown – the family goes about their lives and, when the day is done, the seven people who lived in the house before the fire, go to sleep in a mobile home.
Denise Hluska said they are all waiting for the day when they can move into the new house.
“I can’t wait until we open up the doors and it’s home,” Denise Hluska said. “The trailer’s the trailer – this is home.”
For three years, life for John and Denise Hluska has been far from normal.
“I have no life,” John Hluska said. “No movies, no going out to dinner.”
His work has been hard and steady – from drawing plans to building cabinets, laying flooring, tile and carpet and installing siding. He also made one of the bedrooms and bathrooms handicap-accessible for his wife’s mother.
But, he is tired, and said he will be grateful for any assistance.
“This is not something someone wants to do without someone else’s help,” John Hluska added.
What’s left is putting in insulation, finishing the outside, some dirt work and replacing furniture.
What John Hluska needs is more manpower, he said.
“We need labor – we’re building all this on a construction loan,” Denise Hluska said. “When he can do it himself – financially, that’s all it’s going to be.”
The couple, who had been married only five months before the house burned, said the process from the fire to rebuilding has been an emotional one. And receiving help from the community is no exception.
“Tessie has been like a guardian angel,” she said.
But, Harris would have it no other way. She has even recruited other businesses to donate items.
“I called furniture stores, gift shops – so many people plan to donate, and we will do it together,” she said. “We will look at items they have from different stores and put together the best collections that give the completed look.”
Harris also hopes to have workers come in to help clean up and do last-minute work. She said her hope is that the family can move in to their new home as soon as possible.
“It’s going to be a beautiful home,” Denise Hluska said.