Unsinkable spirit: Water damage takes toll; single mom, 3 boys need flood-relief help

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By Kay Luna | Friday, August 22, 2008 9:44 AM CDT | () comments

Minde Grantham laughs, watching her three live-wire boys — ages 6, 9 and 11 years — bounce around the living room at her friend’s Moline home.

They jump up and down, run toy cars across the couch cushions and snap crayons in half with their foreheads.

Then, one boy stops for a second, spontaneously kissing his brothers and mom on the cheeks.

“They’re something else,” Grantham said, smiling.

But under the surface, the 29-year-old single mom is hurting. She worries all the time about getting a new home established for her family, having lost almost all of their furniture and belongings when floodwaters rose in their former apartment in Davenport.

Her boss, Dr. Stephanie Barquist, a Davenport dentist, nominated Grantham for help through the Unsinkable Spirit Fund, which is set up to offer flood-relief assistance to Quad-Citians who were not covered completely by insurance or by state and federal sources.

Grantham did get some money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but not enough to buy replacement furniture and move the family into a new apartment. She did not have flood insurance to cover her losses.

She is separated from her husband and has no relatives in the Quad-Cities except for her boys: Zachary, Trevor and Evrett. They moved here four years ago from Colorado.

The family did not live along the Mississippi River, having an apartment off 61st Street in the Goose Creek neighborhood instead. Still, after torrential rains struck the area the night of June 12, they ended up with standing water in their first-floor apartment, ruining most of their particle-board furniture. The dining room table and chairs, dressers and entertainment center “all fell apart, they just crumbled,” Grantham said.

The moisture also left behind black mold on their walls and furnishings, including one of the boy’s beds.

For the past three years, Grantham has worked as a dental assistant for Barquist, who describes her as a loyal employee and dedicated to her sons, adding that she “has never missed a day of work — not one day.

“She’s had so many setbacks and it just breaks my heart,” Barquist said.

Pushed up against one wall of a friend’s garage is all that remains from Grantham’s flood-ravaged apartment: A set of bunk beds, a dresser, two television sets, boxes full of toys and photos, clothes and some small decorations.

“That’s it,” Grantham said. “That’s my apartment.

“I’d just started building up my life for me and the boys, and now it’s all gone,” she added. “But I have my boys, and that’s all I really care about.“

Kay Luna can be contacted at (563) 383-2323 or kluna@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.