“You know, there are just so many memories here,” Jill cruz said, as she thought about the history of her home.
Matt Lamb | Daily Journal
The home as it curently stands. “Everything is going to be built here, they are going to demolish everything and rebuild this house from the ground up,” Cruz said.
Matt Lamb | Daily Journal
The home Dillard Richardson and his wife Elizabeth purchased in the 1960’s.
Matt Lamb | Daily Journal
Photo courtesy of Jill Cruz
The ReBuild NC - O’Neill floorplan will serve as the model for Cruz’s new home.
Matt Lamb | Daily Journal
Photo courtesy of ReBuild NC
ROCKINGHAM — Jill Cruz and her family’s roots run deep in Richmond County.
The family patriarch, Dillard Richardson, owned Richardson Carpet and Floor Covering for years, and according to Cruz, laid carpet and flooring all over Richmond County. Cruz said Richardson was a man about town; he knew and held court with just about everyone. Cruz fondly recalls growing up and spending time at the Holiday Restaurant, sitting by the bar and listening to her father talk story with fellow Richmond County residents.
In the 1970s, Richardson and his wife, Elizabeth, purchased a house with nine and a half acres of land in west Rockingham that would become a vibrant part of the family’s legacy, ultimately bearing four children, ten grandchildren, and 14 great-grandchildren.
Cruz said that her family’s homestead was historically part of a plantation that belonged to the Ellerbees. The tax office surmises that the house was built in the ‘40s, but Cruz suspects that the house was actually built somewhere closer to the turn of the century, considering the architecture and original accoutrement throughout the home.
Cruz says she is emotionally and physically inextricably linked to the old home place, located on Silver Grove Church Road.
“This is the house that built us,” she said. “There’s been family reunions held out here, my mother’s funeral was here, her visitation was here. This is where we learned what love was about and what family is,” Cruz beamed.
Unfortunately, time has been unkind to Cruz’s home; years of heavy weather and hurricanes have taken their toll on the once regal dwelling.
After the fierce winds and deluge of rain that accompanied Hurricane Florence in 2018, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funded a repair to a portion of Cruz’s roof damaged in the storm. Although greatly appreciated, the effort was too little too late, Cruz couldn’t keep up with the home’s disrepair.
In 2020, Cruz received what she now considers a godsend. She started getting emails from ReBuild NC, interested in helping her repair and preserve her home.
According to its website, ReBuild NC was established by Governor Roy Cooper after Hurricane Florence devastated much of eastern North Carolina. The organization manages a billion dollars in grant funding. Their mission is to, “assist homeowners and local governments with disaster recovery, mitigation, community development and resiliency.”
Cruz initially disregarded the emails as a potential fraud effort. After some research, she went through ReBuild NC’s eight step application process. When Cruz received her application decision she was completely dismayed.
“I got my award letter expecting that they would repair the roof, help me fix the ceiling, you know, stuff like that. When I got my award letter, my award letter was that they were going to build me a new house,” she said.
Cruz has waited patiently since 2020 for the wheels to start turning on her project. Finally, In June, ReBuild NC moved Cruz into temporary housing to start construction. In addition to her interim stay, ReBuild NC is also funding the storage of her household goods until her new home is finished.
Cruz’s new home will be a 2,300 sq ft, five bedroom, three bathroom stick built home, constructed exclusively on site in Rockingham. The timeline for completion is unknown.
Although Cruz is elated for her family and their new home, she still pays homage to the house that meant so much to five generations. On losing the original structure, Cruz said, “It’s tearing my heart to pieces, it’s heavy on my heart. I know that my daddy would be proud of me and happy for what I’m doing with the house.” She said it gives her solace knowing that the new structure will be on the same piece of property. “I’m still on the property and we will all live here together,” Cruz said.
Cruz had some advice for the approximately 50 other families waiting for ReBuild NC to start their projects in Richmond County. “I want people to know that it is coming. This is a great program. They sought me out, I mean I got all these emails and stuff, they sought me out and I just happened to take advantage of it.”
Cruz is a caring daughter, sister, mother, and grandmother and sees her good fortune as a reflection of a life well lived. “I see this as God’s way of saying, well done my child,” she said, with a tear in her eye as she looked longingly at a historic home that will soon look a little bit different.