After devastating fire, Metolius family has new home

This summer, a Metolius family’s home went up in flames while they were attending a memorial service. With help from the community, a new mobile home was delivered Friday morning, and the owners said they were overwhelmed with support.

The brand-new mobile home moved slowly but surely down Dover Lane in Metolius. Watching every move with pure joy, it was a moment Pam Swearingen had been waiting for.

“Anticipation, like for Christmas,” Swearingen said.

In July the Swearingens’ mobile home caught on fire. The couple smelled smoke right before they left for church, but thought it was from nearby wildfires.

“That day is etched in my memory,” Swearingen said. “We started getting calls from the neighbors saying, ‘Your house is on fire! Your house is on fire!'”

The couple came back to find smoke spewing out of their home, and were left with little but charred ashes.

But donations from church members, the American Legion and the community helped the family raise enough money to bring in a new mobile home.

“It’s been really heart-warming and humbling, and just amazing to have all the outpouring of love from the community,” Swearingen said.

As Swearingen and her husband look forward to making new memories in the home, she said she can look back at that terrible day and see the good.

“We’ve been truly blessed,” Swearingen said. “It was just a lot of blessings came out of it, and we give praise to God for it.”

The home still needs to be bolted together, leveled out, and electricity hooked up. It will be a week before the family is able to move in and start a new chapter in theirlives.