sitting in what should be her Detroit home that she, her husband and their six children are supposed to be sharing, 33-year-old Estelle Barnes-Summers is only reminded of her family’s heartache. Family of 6 seeks help after father killed renovating home
“They shouldn’t have to go through this. This would have been done last year … if he was here,” she said.
Buying the home three years ago, she was prepared to fix it up with her husband Elijah Summers.
Their work and their lives were paralyzed last May, when her husband and their father had been shot and killed.
Estelle was barely able to grieve, quickly returning to work as a store manager.
“Because I had to get money. We had to live and eat. Bills started piling up,” she said.
The family is now staying at family members’ houses. Desperate, Estelle is reaching out to Yatooma’s Foundation for the kids.
Its founder and president Norman Yatooma is all too familiar with unsolved gun violence in Detroit.
“We ost my dad in a very similar fashion. It’s personal, hearing her tell her story,” he said
Looking around the 4-bedroom home, Estelle imagines a place for her children to play and sleep, and she’s humbly asking for help.
“Anything that a house would need. I have nothing. I have no furniture. I have no walls,” she said.
While Estelle says all she can do now is continue to work hard, she tries not to give up hope that there are folks out there to lend a helping hand.
