Help Rebuild Nana’s Home
A HOME FILLED WITH MEMORIES AND LOVE
After a devastating fire, Nana lost the longtime home where so much of our life together has unfolded. She escaped safely, but the house suffered extensive damage and can no longer be lived in.Now, relatives, friends, former students, and neighbors are coming together to rebuild more than a house. We are helping Nana return to the place that has held decades of everyday moments, joyful gatherings, and treasured memories.
NANA'S STORY
To generations of students, she is Mrs. Hartmann—a teacher, professor, chess coach, and mentor. To us, she is Nana: someone whose encouragement, humor, and generous spirit have always made the people around her feel welcome and supported.
HER HOME
For many years, Nana’s home has been a place for visits, celebrations, conversations, and quiet afternoons together. The fire damaged the house, but it could never erase the life lived inside it or the memories connected to every room.
THE JOURNEY HOME
Rebuilding has brought insurance questions, detailed estimates, repeated delays, and more obstacles than anyone expected. Through every setback, those closest to Nana have remained focused on one goal: bringing her safely home.
FAMILY MEMORIES
A donation, a shared link, a photograph, or a few words of encouragement can all make a difference. Every act of kindness reminds Nana that she is surrounded by people who care—and brings her one step closer to home.
HELP BRING
NANA HOME
Donating, sharing Nana’s story, contributing a memory, or sending a message of encouragement can all make a difference. Every act of kindness brings her one step closer to a safe and familiar home.
NANA'S STORY
To many people, she is Mrs. Hartmann: a beloved teacher, professor, chess coach, and mentor who has spent decades helping students find their voices and believe in themselves.To us, she is Nana.She is part of the stories we tell, the traditions we carry forward, and the moments that make our family feel like a family. Her home has long been more than an address. It has been a familiar place to visit, gather, talk, laugh, and simply be together.Nana has spent much of her life encouraging and caring for others. Now we have an opportunity to surround her with that same care and help her return to a safe, familiar home.This is our chance to help someone who has always meant “home” to us.
HER HOME
A family home is built slowly, one ordinary day at a time.Over the years, Nana’s home became a place filled with familiar rooms, favorite belongings, family visits, conversations, celebrations, and quiet moments. Each part of it held a piece of the life she had created there.On October 18, 2024, an accidental electrical fire began in the first-floor sunroom. A working smoke detector alerted Nana to the danger, allowing her and her dog to escape safely. No residents, pets, firefighters, or first responders were injured.Although we are deeply grateful that everyone survived, the home suffered extensive fire, smoke, and water damage and was declared unsafe to occupy. The fire lasted only hours, but rebuilding the home—and restoring the life within it—has become a much longer journey.What was damaged can be rebuilt. What the home means to Nana and our family can never be replaced.
THE JOURNEY HOME
Rebuilding has taken far longer and become far more complicated than our family ever expected.Insurance difficulties, appraisal disputes, construction estimates, and the many practical details involved in rebuilding have created repeated delays. The family has worked steadily to document the damage and establish what it will actually cost to restore the home safely.Multiple construction estimates have been obtained, along with separate estimates for demolition and debris removal, windows, electrical work, and heating and cooling. Each step has required time, persistence, and careful documentation.There have been setbacks, but there has also been progress. Our goal remains simple: begin construction and bring Nana back to a safe, comfortable, and familiar home.Every completed step brings Nana a little closer to home.
FAMILY MEMORIES
The true story of Nana’s home lives in the people who remember it.It lives in family visits, conversations around the table, celebrations, familiar routines, and the little moments that seemed ordinary at the time but now mean so much. A home becomes special because of the life shared inside it.As the rebuilding continues, we hope to preserve and share some of those memories. Photographs, stories, and messages from family and friends will remind Nana that although the house was damaged, the love connected to it remains strong.If you have a favorite photograph, memory, or message for Nana, we would be grateful to receive it.
HOW TO HELP
The journey home will take the support of many people.A donation will help meet rebuilding expenses that insurance may not fully cover. Sharing this page can be just as valuable by helping Nana’s story reach relatives, friends, former students, colleagues, and others who may wish to help.Every donation, shared link, photograph, memory, and message of encouragement reminds Nana that she is not facing this journey alone.DONATE TO THE REBUILD: GiveSendGoShare This Page: Email · Text · Facebook · LinkedIn · XFellow the Rebuild: Construction Updates (Coming Soon)Learn More: The Evidenz Foundation
FROM OUR FAMILY, THANK YOU
Our family is deeply grateful for your kindness and support. Whether you donate, share Nana’s story, contribute a memory, or simply send encouragement, you are helping us restore a place that means so much to her and to all of us.Thank you for helping bring Nana home.