“I just can’t believe how truly caring every person I’ve dealt with has been. You really care about me. I just hope that one day, when I can, I can volunteer to help someone else the way that you have helped me.”
It was a family reunion thirty-two years in the making. Lou Ellen and her husband drove from Wanchese to Denver, NC for the long-awaited event.
But excitement turned to crisis when Lou Ellen fell and shattered her ankle. She doesn’t recall the details of the trip to the emergency room, only that the doctors there told her she broke her foot in three places and needed immediate surgery.
Thirteen screws, two plates, and a pegged bone in her ankle left her out of work for four months and facing some pretty steep financial worries.
A friend connected her with the Outer Banks Relief Foundation, and it wasn’t long before the foundation paid her electric bill and other household expenses, including defraying some of the cost of her extensive physical therapy.
“I don’t know what we would have done. The Foundation helped us pay bills so that I could focus on healing. How do you heal when you’re worrying about bills?”
Lou Ellen has returned to work part-time and recently received the great news that she won’t need a second surgery. She credits her recovery to the kindness and skill of her surgeon, the gentle and supportive care of her husband, the prayers of loved ones, and the generosity of Outer Banks Relief Foundation donors.
Photo of Lou Ellen and her husband Sid on their anniversary. In January 2026, they will be celebrating 35 years of marriage.
