You Can Help 'Brick by Brick'
By JACKIE MORLOCK
Updated 6:23 PM EDT, Fri, Jan 23, 2009
“To he who extends his hand, When there is no moral need, Goes a star upon an unseen chart, Fortifying a place in the future, And satisfaction for having done the deed.” –Becky Lockerby
“Brick by brick” Becky Lockerby is asking you to help her buy back a house, her house, that’s been in her family for 100 years.
Lockerby will lose her house to foreclosure. That is unless she can scrounge up some big buck$ to take back what’s hers from the bank. And, searching for pennies in the couch like when you were little just won’t work here.
So, she’s come up with an idea. You send her $10 bucks, she’ll stick your name on one of the 40,000 bricks that make up her house, and she’ll take a picture and send it to you. Hence, “brick by brick.”
Lockerby told NBCPhiladelphia that she’s raised $500 so far. She still has a ways to go but believes she can do it.
If Lockerby raises more than enough money, she plans to start a non-profit group to help other senior citizens who are having financial difficulties and who stand to lose their homes. The group would be called HUSH -- Help Us Save Homes.
Check out her post on craigslist. It's clearly an ad written by a woman in desperation:
“I HAVE TO RAISE THE MONEY to buy back my home...it's the only one I've ever known. I am 65, live alone, pretty much a loner,” Lockerby wrote.
Lockerby has even created her own website where she’ll offer poems, short stories, crafts, garden, sewing, and food ideas. She asks for one thing, a small donation.
Becky Lockerby doesn’t feel bad for herself though, she specifically wrote that in her ad on craigslist, “I DON'T FEEL SORRY FOR MYSELF...life just worked out that way..”
Lockerby does chores around the house like most homeowners: mows the lawn, digs her garden, does repairs…
But, this isn’t just any house. This house is a part of Lockerby’s family history.
The house was built to be a boarding house for Unionville Academy in 1837.
Then, around 1918 Lockerby’s grandmom bought the house where she raised her children, grandchildren, and helped bring up a great-grandchild.
Lockerby writes: “This is the only home I’ve known my whole life…”
The bank wants Lockerby to have a loan or small loans, people who will back her, Lockerby told us.
Lockerby does write that she is looking for short-term loans in the craigslist ad.
Click here to go to Lockerby's ad on Craigslist.org.
First Published: Jan 23, 2009 12:51 PM EDT
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