“The first place that felt like home”: Fallen tree leaves family without house

It was a clear night with no storms or wind, but a tree still crashed through the Eccleston home. 17-year-old Madeline Eccleston and her boyfriend were only feet away.

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OMAHA, Neb. —

Madeline Eccleston and her boyfriend Collin Pike were watching a movie when they heard what they thought was thunder.

“Next thing you know, you look over and there’s a tree in the house just kind of coming down. The whole roof right in front of you,” the two said.

It was 11:30 p.m. and Eccleston’s mom had already gone to bed, but the neighbor’s tree was now in the kitchen. There was no wind and no storm on Thursday, and the tree appeared healthy, but it still crashed into their home. That’s when Pike jumped into action.

“I had to kind of help [her mom] out of the house, and then I needed to grab all the medicine that she needs,” Pike said. “That would be expensive to replace and she might need that really soon.”

Eccleston’s mom Cara suffers from spinal stenosis, a type of paralysis. It was discovered after she went into respiratory failure in April. Pike got her out of the house safely.

“Just means a lot that he didn’t even stop to think,” Madeline said. “He really stepped in and helped us get everything done, helped everything get moved, get us out of the house, so that’s really important to me.”

“I just did what anyone should do in that situation in my head,” Pike said.

The house in uninhabitable, leaving the Ecclestons looking for a new place to call home. They’ve contacted the Red Cross for assistance, but are currently staying at a hotel.

“You want to go home to some place familiar, and now I’m going to be coming home to a new place that I don’t know,” Cara Eccleston said.

“It’s the first place that kind of felt like home to us, and we, unfortunately, don’t really get to live here anymore,” Madeline said.

Between her son’s college tuition, Madeline’s senior year of high school and her health, Cara is overwhelmed.

“This has just been home, and it’s really said that it’s everything happening at the same time,” Cara said.

The family still doesn’t know what caused the tree to fall, but returned to the home on Friday to retrieve the rest of their things. To support the Eccelstons, click here.