Sunny Place Cottage – Julianna Apartment

I cried for days thinking our family would need to be apart for five weeks, but thanks to Serenity House Network and Jodie & Greg’s inspiration of starting this business, we have felt right at home here in Rochester and have been able to be together as a family throughout our stay. We are humbled by the loving care we received from Greg and Jodie and by GreatDeeds.org. They have inspired us to pay it forward in any way we can.

My husband, Terry, was diagnosed with multiple myeloma (bone marrow cancer) earlier this year, 2015, and needed a stem cell transplant which requires a four to eight week stay within 10 minutes of Mayo Clinic. Terry is an outside sales person for Truck Country in Cedar Rapids, Iowa selling semi-truck parts to dealerships in northeast Iowa. I am a middle school band director in Dysart, Iowa. Our son, Carter, is nine and attends school in town where we live, Jesup, Iowa. One of the members of our transplant team suggested Serenity House Network so that we could have the freedom of having a house for our family and for the many caregivers we needed to rotate so that we could accommodate our family.

Living in a one room setting didn’t feel like a good option for our situation and SHN provided privacy for the patient and caregivers, a completely furnished home with quality appliances, furniture, bedding, linens, and many amenities as well as access to the outdoors where we could find healing and serenity. I was impressed that they even provided nightlights throughout the house so that guests could make their way around at night, particularly when patients sometimes need to get to a restroom quickly and safely when it’s dark. We had privacy and yet help was just a call away if we needed anything.

Receiving a guest gift bag through GreatDeeds.org when we first arrived was such an unexpected surprise. There were so many helpful items like maps, gift cards to Caribou Coffee and Hy-Vee which helped us in a pinch when appointments took up most of the day, a five-day Mayo parking pass which also allowed us to save lots of money when we upgraded to more days when needed, and Waiter Express food delivery when Terry was too sick to leave the house.

Lurene, a volunteer, delivered a freshly baked loaf of bread to welcome us when we first arrived. She informed us that if we would have a birthday, anniversary, or some other celebration during our stay to let her know and they would provide a nice pie or cake for the occasion.

Jodie and Greg arranged a fun fire truck ride for our family which Carter absolutely loved. John Deedrick, President and Co-Founder of GreatDeeds, drove us through the Flapadoodles drive-through in the fire truck and bought us ice cream. Then Flapadoodles provided a punch card which John gave to us so we could come back another time for a free ice cream. This fun they provided broke up the intensity of what we were going through at Mayo and provided a fun diversion for Carter and our family that was much needed and appreciated. It also correlated with a great accomplishment for Terry, harvesting nine million stem cells to continue onto the transplant process. Jodie and Jodie’s daughter, Hope, took pictures throughout this fun fire truck event and Hope put together a stunning album of our family with a Bible verse on the cover serving as a blessing on our family. Such a great memory for us all beautifully documented.

Should we ever need to repeat a stem cell transplant in the future, because multiple myeloma is not curable but is treatable, we will stay at Serenity House Network. It was a beautiful home away from home and we felt loved the whole five weeks we stayed. We have lifelong friends in Greg and Jodie and will value their helping hearts for as long as we live.