Mary Carnahan has more reason than most to feel sorry for herself. She suffers from kidney disease and must be hooked up to a dialysis machine three times weekly. She also has emphysema and needs a walker and infinite reserves of patience to get around. So, when a flood last June ravaged the modest Cedar Rapids home she and her husband Carroll shared, no one would have blamed her if she had belly-ached a bit. But that’s just not who she is: “Oh, I was upset that I lost everything in the house – and the house!” says Carnahan, 70, who had been married 45 years.

Mary Carnahan has more reason than most to feel sorry for herself. She suffers from kidney disease and must be hooked up to a dialysis machine three times weekly. She also has emphysema and needs a walker and infinite reserves of patience to get around. So, when a flood last June ravaged the modest Cedar Rapids home she and her husband Carroll shared, no one would have blamed her if she had belly-ached a bit. But that’s just not who she is: “Oh, I was upset that I lost everything in the house – and the house!” says Carnahan, 70, who had been married 45 years. “But I try not to get too riled up. We just grabbed my oxygen tanks, pills, some clothes and drove away. Then Carroll said to me, ‘We didn’t have anything when we got married, so we’ll just start over again.’”

For a few weeks, the retired couple (she was a telemarketer, he was a truck driver) made do in a motel, paid for by FEMA. Then they had to move, and they had no money. The National Kidney Foundation, which had established a disaster relief fund for kidney patients affected by hurricanes and floods, stepped in. “We found a trailer we really liked and they helped us make the down payment,” says Carnahan. “We wouldn’t have a home without them.” With the $1,000 from NKF and another $1,000 from a group of close friends, the couple bought a used trailer in a mobile park. Carnahan still looks on the bright side. She loves her trailer, which she says, “looks just like a little house inside, with wood floors and lots of cupboards in the kitchen.” She also is still able to get around enough to keep a date every second Friday of the month for coffee with her high school gal pals. “Between the National Kidney Foundation and my girlfriends,” Carnahan says, “Carroll and I have had the best of luck!”