Bonnie Gorski and her family are getting a new lease on life.
The mother of two sons has lived with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) for most of her adult life. Her mobility has deteriorated to the point where she can’t move around her house without help from her family.
The Gorskis have been chosen as this year’s recipients for the Build Love campaign. Build Love — which is in its second year — renovates houses free of cost for people living with debilitating challenges.
She was chosen out of about 20 applicants after being nominated by her sister-in-law.
“Just can’t believe that this is all happening for us,” said Gorski.
Gorski said she has been struggling with mobility for the last five years and recently lost mobility in her legs. She’s often confined to her house for most of the day, sitting in the same chair sometimes from seven in the morning until 10 at night.
As a result, she and her family were looking at moving her into a long-term care home.
“It’s hard on me because I was the doer, the planner, the cleaner, the cooker and so to give up that control is really hard,” she said.
“And for my husband that’s really hard on him to have to step into that role. It’s just heartbreaking to have to see my family pick up everything that I can’t do.”
With the renovation, Gorski will be able to keep living at home and gain some of her independence back.
“I hope that these renovations, and I think that they will, will just allow me to engage more in my family and engage more with life in general instead of just sitting there,” she said.
‘An amazing gift’
Gorski said she’s looking forward to doing things most people take for granted, such as cooking and being able to go outside. She also hopes to help her family more and reignite her interest in photography.
Stuart Gorski, Bonnie’s husband and primary caregiver, said the project is “just an amazingly amazing gift.”
“Everybody’s kind of putting this whole thing together for us to have an opportunity for Bonnie to have better accessibility around the house and just open up her life to stay with us.”
Trevor Anderson, co-founder of Build Love, wouldn’t give away too many details of the renovations, but he said they would “change her day-to-day life on every aspect and hopefully allow the family to not have the same day -to-day struggles that they currently have to live with.”
He said construction is set to start in July and finish in the fall.
In the meantime, Build Love is looking for volunteers and donations to help with the project. More information can be found on the campaign’s website.