Family is really important to Michele Curry. She was born and raised in Columbia, Missouri, a place she continues to call home. She now works as a banker.
She spoke with the Missouri on Mic team at this year's True/False Festival held in Stephen's Lake Park about how she fought to keep her grandparent’s house in the family.
Missouri on Mic is an oral history and journalism project documenting stories from around the state in its 200th year.
Michele Curry: It was actually a very funny story. I was 26 years old, I had already been sort of saving for a down payment for a house, but I had set myself a goal of buying a house at age of 30.
And here I was at the age of 26, and my grandparents had put in on the waitlist for our senior living center called Lenoir out on the south side of town, and with a waiting list that long, you never know when the call is gonna come to say they've got something available.
And they got the call, and their place was ready, and so, it was time to turn around the real estate, and I was sitting with my grandma and kind of just joking around [and] I said, "Well, Grandma, what if I bought your house?" and she's like, "Interesting. Let's talk more about that."
And so after an hour, I'd basically talked myself into buying real estate I didn't think I could afford, but, you know, this opportunity comes by once in a lifetime, and I absolutely could not let it by.
So, the very next day, I took these numbers to my boss, who is also a mentor and confidant that says, "Can I... can I even do this?" and she ran the numbers with me, and she says, "Honey, you have to do this."
So, the very next day, I turned around and started getting with some mortgage lenders and figuring out how to afford a down payment I hadn't quite saved up for.
"I have written generous note upon generous note to people who are going through this saying, 'I might not understand but I can help. What can I do? Here are my hands, what can I do to help you?'"Michelle Curry
But the story is they got their place of Lenoir and now that their house is with their granddaughter now, and I've turned it into my own little space, and I'm like, "Grandma, you know, here's your iris garden."
She says, "Honey, that's your iris garden now."because I have to keep it alive and tend to it, but there's a sense of responsibility too – like, keeping Grandma proud of the house and garden that she built.
Since the pandemic started, I'm fortunate to say that my life hasn't changed a lot, and that is because I don't have children and because I was able to keep my job.
So,I'm living with my boyfriend, I bought my grandparents house about four years ago, and so he and I are living in a house that has meant a lot to our family for 25 years.
And when the pandemic hit and we were sent home, both he and I kept our jobs. Meaning, we could continue paying the mortgage on this house that means so much to us, and our lives weren't disrupted – like they were with parents who had to start virtual learning or people who are trying to take care of elderly parents who they weren't allowed to visit in the nursing homes.
It's just like every single box that affected people negatively did not affect my life, and so I have written generous note upon generous note to people who are going through this saying, "I might not understand but I can help. What can I do? Here are my hands, what can I do to help you?"
Because we know we're the fortunate ones. And I hope everybody else who is in my position is doing the same thing.
