Volunteers provide holiday gift to woman in need

AUSTIN, Texas (FOX 7 Austin) - It was not your typical sound of the holidays. Wednesday morning the people moving around this Forest North Estates home in Williamson County, acted more like lumberjacks than elves.

They cut, they carried and dragged debris into a growing pile to be hauled off.

For Celia Gray who owns the house, it’s nothing less than a Christmas miracle.

"More than I can say, more than I can every give back," said Gray.

Deputy Deke Pierce, with the Williamson County Precinct 1 Constable's office helped organize the clean up. "Its about us helping the people in the community, and some people need more help than others, and if you can take care of your property like you should, fantastic, but you know as well as I do, there are those people out there, that need a little extra help and we just happened to be in the right place at the right time to provide that help,” said Deputy Pierce.

The tree canopy has been pulled off the roof, and also away from nearby utility lines.

A crew from Good Guys Tree Service did the trimming. "I told them we do one free tree job per month for free which we do and this was it,” said company owner Bob Tumlinson.

This project did not start off as some charitable cause. It began after a neighborhood complaint was filed. But a citation for neglect was not issued because Celia Gray, was not neglecting another responsibility; one that was much more important.

Gray is caring for her mother. "She will be 100 years old on January 11th,” said Gray. 

Her mother is ill and lives in Taylor. Gray didn't have the resources or time to keep up both locations.  "Mother has told me over the years, she wants to die in her house, and that’s what I’m here for,” said Gray who essentially chose her mother over her own home.

When Constable Vinnie Cherrone learned of Gray's dilemma, he said it wasn't hard to round up a volunteer work party. "I can't imagine what she thinks every time she comes over here and looks at it and says, what am I going to do, well she doesn't have to do that anymore,  we are helping her do it,” said Constable Cherrone.

The volunteers plan to be back on Saturday to start repairing Gray’s fence.

“I will never ever be able to repay this,” said Gray.