In this Heartware Story we meet Bob from Midway Ace in Georgia. See how he and his wife Mary have created housing for caregivers of organ transplants.

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[Music] You can't go through what the Evans Family have gone through and not have an Impact on your life and they've taken That impact and they've turned it into a Positive Thing Bob Evans has been an employee With us and he's been a staple in this Store Bob is known to the community as Uncle Bob people know that they can come Ask Bob something and that he will help Them and that's the gist behind who we Are we're The Helpful people and Bob's a Helpful Guy our son Jeffrey lost his life at age 26 Jeff was a fourstar chef in the Atlanta area he was up and Rising they Discovered that an unknown virus had Entered his body and had attacked his Heart he was immediately transferred to St Joseph's Hospital down in Atlanta About a year and a half through it they Had a heart that heart had not been Viable for transplant and so he was sent Sent home the next day and he lived Another year and a half to have your son Tell you Mom I'm going to die and I Couldn't tell him it wasn't true was the Worst day of my life because I knew he Was I instinctively knew he was and I Never lied to my kids and I couldn't lie To him then he was laidback he's the Least judgmental person I've ever met Very similar to my dad he just had a lot

Of Grace he was a good guy 8 months later and I turned my face up To God and I said you got to make sense Of this for me because as a grieving Mom I don't understand why you took my son And I thought about when he was Diagnosed and he was told he would have To go to Birmingham for his insurance to Pay for heart transplant but we thought About people coming into Atlanta under The same conditions and trying to figure Out what we could do for them and that's When we thought of the housing in the World of transplant organs you cannot be Transplanted and unless you have a Caregiver who is going to live with you 24/7 the caregiver has to step in and Manage his own private life you've also Got the person's life the family's life The finances housing locations and all This stuff comes into play and our goal Is is to bring care to really the Caregiver who gets overlooked in the Medical industry regardless whether it's Cancer or or [Music] This The Evans Foundation provides that close Lodging in a two-bedroom apartment for Patients and caregivers you get up in The morning and the first thing you do Is you get your patient we have had Caregivers who have been living in the Hospital most of them have this nogy

Awful recliner sitting in the corner you Sleep night after night after night in That position you grab a shower when you Can at the hospital when somebody else Isn't already in there it's hard to keep Clean clothes if you're lucky your Family brings you clean clothes and You're eating cafeteria food that's the Caregivers world when they're in the Hospital and so we are there to relieve Them from that Jeffy Evans Foundation is One of a kind organization you have a Two bedroom apartment you can cook meals The caregiver can go in another bedroom And get some rest while your other Family members can help watch the Patient because of what the foundation Does it helps heal as one unit and one Unit as a family my daughter Macy was Born with a restrictive atrial septum Then we got listed for the transplant She was on the list for 16 days and we Got the call that she got her heart just That home living you don't feel like You're living on the road you're living Somewhere where you belong I can Actually be here with my daughter Instead of having to make sure I'm back At home and going to work and doing all That stuff because of this Situation we've had 186 families live in Our apartments in s years of all of Those people we've only lost five that's A really good statistic for transplants

Our goal is to open up a minimum of About a 50,000 Square ft five-story Building and it's laid out in such a way That it's beneficial for the medical People that are staying with Us A's support obviously is massive the Fact that they give Bob the background To be able to use that and spread the Word and and talk to a lot of people and Just keep it going out I mean that's That's huge when Bob started working on The Evans Foundation we started to Support him and let him do things in the Store where he can Market it and grow The foundation a hardware Corporation Understands the need for the small Business owner to be able to touch their Communities it needs to be one of the Most important things you do is to give To your community something that's Touching somebody and doing something And it's amazing how the community will Rally around it you have to bless to be Blessed exactly God if Jeff was here Well he' give everybody a hug he'd Probably break down Crying that's exactly what would happen We believe that Jeff is in heaven we Believe he's alive and I believe he's Looking down and it's going way to go Mom and dad and Brad I really think he's Pleased with It [Music]

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