Story Photos
 Loretta Taylor with two of her three special-needs children, daughter Destiny and son T.J., are all smiles Sunday at the site of their future home in North Kelso. Leslie Slape / The Daily News
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Habitat building home for widow, her 3 special-needs kids
Monday, September 29, 2008 7:36 PM PDT
By Leslie Slape
Printable version
E-mail this articleSunday’s bright September sun gleamed on gold-painted shovels as Loretta “Lori” Taylor and donors from the PNE Charitable Foundation broke ground for a home for Taylor and her special-needs children.
“I can’t tell you what this means to me,” Taylor said. “This was my husband’s dream for us.”
Her husband, Terry Ray Taylor, died Sept. 7 at age 42 after fighting cancer for two years. Thanks to a $46,500 donation from the PNE Charitable Foundation to Habitat for Humanity, his wife and three children will have a home.
“It’s just a great opportunity,” said John Partridge, president and owner of PNE/Cowlitz Clean Sweep. “Habitat for Humanity has been a really good fit for us.”
This is the third year PNE has donated money from its annual charity golf tournament to Habitat for Humanity.
“The people giving get as much out of it as the people receiving,” Partridge said.
The Taylors’ house is the 11th Habitat for Humanity project in Cowlitz County.
Taylor’s children all have different special needs. Her oldest, T.J. (for Terry Junior), 9, has attention deficit disorder. Destiny, 8, has severe autism and can’t speak. Billy, 4, was mostly deaf the first two years of his life and is just beginning to learn to talk. He’s being screened for apraxia of speech, a neurological disorder that interrupts the brain’s signals to the muscles, Taylor said.
“I watch her take care of these kids,” said her pastor, the Rev. Paul Rice, at the groundbreaking ceremony. “She’s always patient with them.”
After they’re in bed, Taylor, 35, works nights at Viatech Publishing Solutions in Kalama.
Every child will get a bedroom in the future sky-blue house at 800 N. Pacific Ave., she said. Taylor said the house, including the permitting process, should be finished in nine to 10 months.
A donation account, Taylor Family Fund, has been established at U.S. Bank.
mom of 2 wrote on Sep 28, 2008 11:59 PM:
The Stig wrote on Sep 29, 2008 8:05 AM:
bretharte wrote on Sep 29, 2008 8:52 AM:
banana hammock wrote on Sep 29, 2008 10:46 AM:
Good Work "
klanningg wrote on Sep 29, 2008 12:49 PM:
starfire wrote on Sep 29, 2008 4:10 PM:
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