‘Back in the Christmas spirit’

A couple of tornado-impacted families in Greenfield say they were put in the Christmas spirit recently despite a tough year because of the generosity and kindness of a local small business owner.

Dennis and Jeri Pickrell and Nathan and Meagan Hubenka received a donation of a Christmas lights install on rental properties they’re in while their new homes are being built where their previous homes once stood.

Tyler Carney, owner of Outdoor Odyssey in Adair, says he received a list of property owners from one of his employees, Lynn Hansen of Greenfield, and was happy to perform the work. He lined the gutters of each home with lights, which inspired the Pickrells and Hubenkas to decorate outdoors this year.

Outdoor Odyssey used to be known as Cornerstone Landscaping. Installation of Christmas lights was a portion of what the company used to offer, so he had some lights and supplies on hand.

“I had a chance to visit with both of them while we were doing the installs. They were both down during the holiday season because they both liked to decorate and had their own nuances they did for their previous homes,” Carney said. “Jeri said she wasn’t even going to put up a Christmas tree. Once we were done, she messaged us and said she was going to buy some Christmas decorations, that it had put her back in the Christmas spirit again. She was happy to have it, and the same as Meagan. That’s why we did it.”

Jeri operates an in-home daycare and said her daycare kids enjoyed watching Carney and his crew install the

lights using a basket truck.

She and Dennis moved in late this summer after they lived with relatives and only housed the daycare at the rental through most of the summer.

She was grateful to be able to reopen 10 days after the tornado, despite her and Dennis losing everything except the clothes they had on, their cellphones and his wallet. Nothing sentimental from past Christmases was left.

“Losing all that, I still can’t bring myself to decorate a tree. I have a 2 foot tree up with lights and garland,” Jeri said. “I got the letter saying we had been chosen [for the outdoor lights]. It made me cry that someone has that much compassion out of the goodness of their heart to do that for people.”

Similarly, the Hubenkas said receiving the gift of the Christmas lights made her 13-year-old triplets extremely happy. It inspired Meagan, who said she normally aspires to be Clark Griswold from the movie “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” to decorate more.

“I didn’t know if I would have it in me because we did lose a lot of our Christmas decorations,” Meagan said. “I didn’t know if I was even going to put up lights at the rental. We’re fortunate to have a roof over our heads right now but it still doesn’t feel like home. When he came out and lined the roof, that made me want to decorate a little more for our kids. It meant a lot for them to do that for us out of the kindness of their hearts.”

Carney explained that the feeling of having to rebuild a home isn’t completely foreign to him. In 2011, a home his family had purchased and was renovating extensively caught fire when it was struck by lighting. It happened two weeks before they were going to move in and was destroyed.

“We were fortunate enough to not lose personal items. We still had all our clothes and memorabilia, but I lost tools and we lost all the time we put into the renovation,” Carney said. “We’ve been through many of the things people in Greenfield have been through, including the disaster of trying to try to navigate an insurance policy on your own.”

Jeri said the tornado recovery phase for her has had its ups and its downs, but there’s one thing she’s learned through it all about her community.

“There’s more good than there is evil,” she said. “I think that’s what is great about our community. We’re really lucky to be [alive].”