When Charles Love came to Fresno, it wasn’t for recreation – instead he raced here from Indiana after receiving a phone call from Community Regional Medical Center saying his son Badili had been in an accident and was in intensive care.
 

From 2,000 miles away he flew to be by his son’s side. “I thought I was going to have to go there and care for my son, but from the time I got off that elevator I saw him being cared for. I saw all these people who cared about him. [Then] I went to Terry’s House and they were taking care of me,” Charles said.
 

Terry’s House, which is celebrating its third anniversary this month, is a home away from home across the street from Community Regional for families who have loved ones in critical care at the hospital. The respite home was built with community donations and is dependent solely on contributions from the public to operate. Since its opening more than 2,100 families from 19 different countries and 42 states have found refuge at Terry’s House.
 

Charles didn’t know how he was going to afford to stay in Fresno to help Badili – that was until he heard about the Leon S. Peters Host Family Program at Terry’s House.
 

In 2010, the Leon S. Peters Foundation created the program to help family members like Charles to be close to their loved ones in the hospital. Having family near and included in their loved one’s care and rehabilitation typically helps patients heal better. Since establishing the host program with a major gift, the Peters Foundation has assisted more than 1,000 families in their stay at Terry’s House.
 

The Loves’ also benefited from the Leon S. Peters Rehabilitation Program where Badili spent weeks recovering before returning home with his father to Indiana.
 

“Thank you to everybody involved at the hospital and Terry’s House [for] taking that stress away from my family,” Badili said.
 

Charles was eventually able to fly home with his son where Badili plans to walk again and go back to school to study philosophy. Before he departed, Charles left a kind note in the guest book at Terry’s House which read, “I am so thankful for Terry’s House that I consider it spiritually obtained or God sent. I am so grateful for the help that I received here that I cannot thank you enough.”
 

Story reported by Ginny Joslin. She can be reached at MedWatchToday @CommunityMedical.org.