Since we opened our doors more than six years ago, the Howie’s House has welcomed thousands of transplant patients and their caregivers to a real “home away from home.”

Among them is Alicia Hoover-Murphy, who found help and hope here first as a caregiver…and later as a transplant patient.

Alicia and her father had both been diagnosed with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis—a terminal lung disease for which a lung transplant is currently the only treatment option.

Two days before his 46th birthday, the call came … Alicia’s father would receive a new set of lungs. Like many transplant families, they were far from home as they waited and hoped—for months.

Your support of Gift of Life Howie’s House made sure they had a little less to worry about during those endless, scary months. At the end of every long, hard day spent at the hospital cheering him on, the family returned to a “home away from home” that included home-cooked meals; clean, comfortable rooms; heartfelt support from staff; and camaraderie with other transplant families.

Although her father’s transplant was a success, complications mounted in the months following the procedure, which ultimately claimed his life.

Over the next few years, Alicia grew sicker herself. It was a bittersweet day when she and her loved ones returned to Gift of Life Howie’s House so she, too, could undergo the many tests and consultations that would lead her to being listed for a transplant.

“When we were there for my father, we’d made friends with the staff and other families at the Howie’s House. They were all like a second family to us,” Alicia says. “It was so nice to be surrounded by people who understood what we were going through and to be able to educate one another about what to expect.”

When her call finally came, Alicia was more than ready for the lung transplant that would restore her to health, to her family, to life.

Alicia’s transplant was a success. She and her family are deeply thankful for the organ donor who gave her a second chance in life and for contributors like you who make the Howie’s House a warm, wonderful, and affordable place to stay during a most difficult time.

“Thank you to all of you for this amazing home. You make it possible for the Howie’s House to offer an environment that is safe to people going through extremely rough times in their lives,” Alicia says. “The Family House provided a place of shelter for my family and provided me with a whole other family that I love and care about as if they were my own relatives.”