Brand New Home Burned to Ground; Help the Jacobs

Hi, my name is Matt. I'm fundraising for the Heather, my little sister, whose brand new home burned to the ground. Heather and her husband, Jay, along with their three boys, moved to Oklahoma in 2023.

They built a beautiful new home in the countryside in Tulsa County (Bixby, OK), settling in with their two dogs and two shy cats.

Moving can be challenging enough, but they've had several other challenges along the way, including 3 job changes between the two of them. What’s worse, Jay, who is a disabled veteran, found out that his father was not actually his father. Thanks to hard-core determination of my sister, she found this out through Ancestry.com and DNA. Just imagine! Their world as they knew it was completely upended already.

Then on January 14, their son went to the garage to start up the four-wheelers. It was in the middle of the cold spell sweeping through the country - it was only 1 degree outside, so they let the four wheeler warm up in the garage before driving it.

That’s when it all went wrong. Somehow a cushion caught fire in the garage, and quickly it was engulfed by flames. Luckily, the boys were not in the garage when it happened, but Jay got burned when he opened the door to see what was happening. All of them escaped the home safely (and Jay is OK). They were able to get their dogs out of the house, but those shy cats hid upstairs, and it was too dangerous to go in after them. By the time the firefighters arrived, it was too dangerous for them also. The cats died in the fire. They were Heather’s security blanket through all the recent changes as well as her constant companions while she worked from home.

They all stood there in the freezing cold, watching their dream home go up in flames.

They lost EVERYTHING, but the most difficult things are their sentimental collections.

Jay, who played college football at Tulsa before serving 6 years in the military (23 years of service overall), is really into sports, comic books, and Star Wars. Every year they don’t just decorate one Christmas tree, but SEVERAL Christmas trees, each with its own ornamental theme (Football Quarterbacks, Star Wars, Spiderman, etc.). Jay had also collected a lot of sports memorabilia, signed jerseys and helmets, etc. He is an Oklahoma Sooners and Dallas Cowboys fan.

Heather’s collections were based on her journeys. As a youth, she played high school and competitive softball. Back then, each team made pins with their own logos, and players would trade with players from other teams, building their collection of softball pins. Heather had a huge collection. She continued her pin collecting as an adult through her travels - every time she goes somewhere new, she collects a pin.

I visited her in December and she took me for a drive along Route 66. Like me, she’s a sightseer and loves all the roadside attractions along the Route. She bought a Route passport book and collected stamps at each of the stops along the way. This is my sister in a nutshell; she loves collecting memories.

Their boys played football and lost all their supplies including helmets, pads, and shoes. Their season is about to begin in February (football is basically year-round in OK), and they’ll be traveling to Texas to play.

Sadly, their supplies, and all those fun collections are all gone, burned in the house fire. Insurance will help, of course, but since everything was destroyed, they won’t be able to document any of the losses through photos - it’s going to be difficult to recover the actual worth.

And of course, the sentimental value can never be recovered. More than monetarily, Heather and Jay need to know that people care. They are virtually alone in a new place without their support group, and they could use any well-wishes or expressions of support they can get. Neighbors are taking them in and Jay’s new family (yes, he discovered who his real father is) has been wonderful as well. We’re grateful for the wonderful people in Oklahoma who are helping to take care of them.

If you’d like to help, you can donate here - any amount is greatly appreciated. It’s an expression of love and support as much as anything. They will obviously need to get clothing, food, and shelter, and their boys need equipment for football. Who knows how long the insurance company will take, and in the meantime they will need a lot of things.

If you'd rather donate directly, reach out as we'll share the Venmo link with you. If you don't want to donate, that's ok too - a comment or expression of support is greatly appreciated.