A Nashville family deals with the aftermath of a semi-truck hitting their home
By Tosin Fakile
Click here for updates on this story
NASHVILLE, Tennessee (WSMV) — A family came together to help their 87-year old mother, Christine Carpenter figure out what’s next after a semi-truck ran into her home on Thursday afternoon at the intersection of Elm Hill Pike and Wanda Drive.
Christine Carpenter still can’t believe what happened to her house that she’s lived in since the 50’s. It’s a house that holds many memories, but Carpenter’s daughter Faye continues to remind her mother to count her blessings.
“I don’t feel a bit better than when it first happened. It’s just, you have to go on,” 87-year old Carpenter said. “I’m worried and I’m hurt but I can’t do anything about it. I’ve got to take one hour at a time,” she added.
“Emotionally she cries every time she sees her house. She keeps remembering all the good memories inside of it and she remembers that her car, her garage, her kitchen, and her living room will never be the same again,” said Faye Morris, Christine Carpenter’s daughter.
The semi-truck that went into Christine Carpenter’s home was removed late Thursday evening. The truck didn’t just damage her house, it damaged years of memories in a house Carpenter’s daughter said was built by her grandfather and her grandfather’s brother.
“I had antique dishes that were my mother’s, my mother in law in the attic. the attic is over the garage. it was full of stuff. it’s no more,” Carpenter said.
“It moved the foundation on the backside of the house. it’s about a half-inch off the foundation. It cracked a lot of the ceilings inside, the kitchen and the living room,” said Morris, Carpenter’s daughter. “I was born and raised here. My sister was born and raised here. My son was born and raised here. My daddy’s recliner still sits in his same little corner where he sat up,” she added.
On Friday, the family moved food from the fridge and freezer over to the neighbors and helped their mother pack to stay somewhere else. But Carpenter’s daughters say they haven’t been alone in all of this.
“We saw neighbors last night that we didn’t know we had,” Morris said.
Carpenter says besides the damage to her garage, attic, and part of the kitchen, everything else is intact but she hasn’t given up on her home.
“It hurts. It hurts. But I raised 3 children here and this is home,” Carpenter said. “They’re going to rebuild it and do everything. Repair it. I hope to continue to live here,” she added.
The family says the next step is getting an engineer out to the house to determine what’s next including getting that vehicle out of the garage without the roof collapsing in.
Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.
