Jacinto Bernardo has been in the Marines for 21 years, and for that whole time he and his family have lived in military housing, relocating every couple years. But last January he and his wife bought a house in preparation for his retirement. Somewhere to finally settle down.
But the house they bought was a fixer-upper to put it nicely. They knew when they bought it that once they were able to move in, it would require a lot of work, but as his wife noted, “We chose it because it was the only thing we can afford.”
For the last several months of Bernardo’s service he and his family have been stationed abroad. During that time, he asked his friend Jeremy Epperson to watch their new home for them until they could come and take residence there and start the major task of rehabbing it.
Epperson did much more than keep an eye on it…
Not wanting his friend to come home to a house in that condition, Epperson gathered donations and volunteers from Bernardo’s new community and arranged to have all the remodeling and updates done — totaling $70,000 — so that when Bernardo and his family arrived, they could move into their dream home instead of the mess they were expecting…
(Read more at KHON and Daily Republic.)
Through tears, Bernardo humbly expressed his gratitude, saying that those who’ve lost their lives or who were unable to come home in one piece are the ones who really deserve this lavish generosity.