The Galveston County Daily News

HITCHCOCK — A grass-roots effort is building among volunteers and faith-based agencies to get a Hitchcock woman back to her home for the holidays.

Relief workers and friends are hoping readers of The Daily News will pitch in and help as well.

“We know there are some people out there with some big hearts, and if they can help, they will,” Jean Washington, a family friend of Verlis Perrodin, said.

Washington has provided living quarters for Perrodin for more than a year.

Hurricane Ike hit hard at the house where Verlis and her husband, the late Raymond Perrodin, sheltered more than 250 foster children in the course of 34 years. Repair projects coordinated by Catholic Charities replaced the roof and gutted the interior.

But the removal of moldy walls revealed the need for extensive electrical and plumbing work. The initial reconstruction funds would not cover the cost. Relief workers gently suggested that Mrs. Perrodin, 73, her disabled son and two grandchildren should consider giving up on the house and moving.

“She doesn’t want to leave Hitchcock; she doesn’t want to leave the house she and my father worked so hard for,” Gregory Perrodin, Perrodin’s son, said.

Gregory, who suffers from Crohn’s disease and multiple sclerosis, is one of three children adopted by the Perrodins, who later became foster parents. The couple expanded their two-bedroom home into four bedrooms, enclosing a garage, to provide more room for foster children.

“There’s a history with that house,” Gregory said.

Now, the Jesse Tree is joining the effort to reconstruct the homestead.

“Once we have the bigger picture of what disaster relief resources have already been spent, we should be able to go back and find some additional resources and other organizations to team up with us to help her,” Ted Hanley, executive director of the social-services network, said.

Readers can also pitch in and help.

“Anyone willing to help her is more than welcome to call the Jesse Tree,” he said.

Gregory and Verlis Perrodin are grateful for the help and also wanted to stress their gratitude for the work of Catholic Charities.

“We are most appreciative for what they have done already,” he said.

For the time being, Mrs. Perrodin, wheelchair-bound, will continue to rule the kitchen at Washington’s home, cooking for family and friends.

“She’s a very sweet, outgoing little lady,” Washington said.

“If she could do more, she would…. With the holidays coming up, she was really hoping she could be in her home, cooking her family Thanksgiving dinner.”

Gregory Perrodin is staying at a friend’s apartment nearby. His sister and four grandchildren are elsewhere in the county.

“We’re just keeping hope, staying prayerful and hoping something will come through and my mother can get back into her house,” he said. “God will make a way somehow. We haven’t come this far to turn around now.”

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How To Help

Call The Jesse Tree at 409-762-2233 or e-mail jessetree(at)aol.com.