RICHMOND, Va. -- Benefa Anning, a mother of two, shared her story with CBS 6 after her apartment was suddenly covered in mold after the air conditioning failed at her home in the Canterbury Square Apartments in Henrico.
She and her family lost most of their belongings after an estimate showed that it would cost over $50,000 to replace and repair everything that was damaged.
The damages went past just material items.
"Small things like my mother's picture, my mother passed and there's no getting those back," Anning said.
After the Problem Solvers reached out to prior management, she was finally able to leave the hotel room they were staying in and move into a new apartment.
"We've been slowly but surely getting things back to normal," Anning said.
However, Anning and her kids still didn't have things like clothes, school supplies or even beds at the start of their school year.
"What people don't understand is quite literally since July, my children and I were not able to say, hey, we're going to go home and get in the bed," Anning said.
Fortunately, after her story aired, she said her family received an outpouring of help from the community.
"I'll try not to get emotional from here. The outpouring from the community has been absolutely amazing," Anning said.
Many of the essential items her family lost are now replaced, from furniture to clothes to over $5,000 in donations.
"I was just so excited just to have chairs because now we can actually sit down and have dinner together, just to give the children a sense of normalcy," Anning said.
She is now able to work because some of her equipment has been cleaned. She has also been able to purchase beds for her and her kids.
Anning said she is more than thankful to the community for helping make her family's new house a home.
"It was over $5,000. People donated just to say, hey, you know, we understand this was not your fault but we want to help you and even if we don't know exactly what to get you, here's something to help. And that means so much. Just thank you to everyone," Anning said.
