{"id":49431,"date":"2021-06-30T22:51:55","date_gmt":"2021-07-01T02:51:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=49431"},"modified":"2021-06-30T22:52:09","modified_gmt":"2021-07-01T02:52:09","slug":"army-vet-surprised-with-new-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2021\/06\/army-vet-surprised-with-new-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Army vet surprised with new home"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>An injured veteran had a life-changing moment when she was given a home \u2013 mortgage-free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Army PFC Angela Hatfield took her first steps inside her new Lehigh Acres home on Wednesday alongside her family. She has survived so much but said she doesn\u2019t deserve this gift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen\" src=\"https:\/\/w3.cdn.anvato.net\/player\/prod\/v3\/anvload.html?key=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%3D\"  width =\"640\" height=\"360\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p>Life is full of surprises, and Hatfield believes life is full of things we cannot control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s nothing like the experience that most of us had during the military,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She experienced the good and the truly awful, and in thanks for her time in uniform,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.buildinghomesforheroes.org\/\">Building Homes for Heroes<\/a>&nbsp;designed a home for her and her family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s good to see that people care about us and appreciate what we\u2019ve done for our country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2006, Hatfield suffered a traumatic brain injury. During a jump, her parachute malfunctioned and she slammed her head on the group. She now lives with a permanent speech disability. Despite that, the vet said she doesn\u2019t feel deserving of all the goodwill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEveryone from Homes for Heroes has been amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rusty Smallwood with Building Homes for Heroes proudly presented the home to Hatfield, her husband and their two children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThey really didn\u2019t believe they deserved it. They think people who are more severely injured deserve it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cJust because she isn\u2019t as severe as maybe the next person, doesn\u2019t mean she doesn\u2019t deserve it. She deserves this home just as much as anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was an emotional day for the family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t have the words to explain how thankful I am,\u201d said Brandon Hatfield, Angela\u2019s husband.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was a hopeful day for the organization that made it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis is the most fun part of our job. We manage the construction, the renovations\u2026but when you\u2019re helping a veteran and putting them in a forever home, it\u2019s just amazing,\u201d Smallwood said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some of the family\u2019s friends joined them to celebrate their new home, and some of their new neighbors even stopped by to welcome them home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An injured veteran had a life-changing moment when she was given a home \u2013 mortgage-free. Army PFC Angela Hatfield took her first steps inside her new Lehigh Acres home on&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":49432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,32],"tags":[446],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49431"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49431"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49433,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49431\/revisions\/49433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}