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The Dillard have been living in a hotel all this school year.
Just like last year, the Dillards wake up every day ready for school. Everyone’s morning routine is the same. Drue still has to be early for drill team practice, Leila still drives her Toyota Camry to school, and Ross and Erin Dillard still need to be at Memorial by 7 a.m. to begin their day at work.
But unlike last year, the Dillards have to walk through the lobby of Homewood Suites to get to their vehicles, passing by the front desk and other guests. Ross Dillard still arrives at school at the same time, but he has to change out of his athletic shorts in the locker room, and Leila is now tasked with dropping the dogs off at the house that is no longer available to them.
All because the Dillards’ house was struck by lightning on July 1, causing immense damage. The lightning strike caused an electrical shortage that spread all over the home and called for a rewiring of the building in its entirety. The fire itself was contained to the garage, engulfing the water heater closet, ruining the air conditioner and burning the attic.
Thankfully, the Dillards were home and able to save their home from complete destruction.
“It’s been hard to adapt to because you don’t really have a house, you don’t really have normal, so you’re still finding a new normal and balancing everything,” senior Leila Dillard said. “It doesn’t make me really bothered, but it does make me appreciate my family. It could have been way worse.”
After this incident, they had to move into the Homewood Suites hotel. They have been living there ever since and will be doing so until further notice.
“They said the best-case scenario would be November or December,” Erin Dillard said. “We have not heard back yet, nor have they started construction on our house yet.”
Life inside the hotel has been rather difficult. The Dillards don’t have all the normal dinner opportunities other families have due to the limited cooking supplies and small space. The hotel has a couple of small burners and a grill outside that the Dillards take advantage of, but fast food remains a primary option.
“We have probably eaten out more than we have in years,” Ross Dillard said. “It makes it hard to decide what you want when you’ve eaten out so much that you don’t have an appetite for the fast food options given to you.”
Food isn’t the only easy chore that the Dillards have struggled with. The Dillards accumulate a lot of laundry from the extracurriculars they all participate in, which can take a toll on everyday life.
“You can’t say, ‘Oh, I need to wear this two days from now’ and wash it, you can’t do that,” Erin Dillard said. “So we have had a lot of help from Mrs. (Carlye) Bindel and Mrs. (Penny) Frazier.”
The parents aren’t the only ones who have had a difficult time. The children, especially their son Rhett in the fourth grade, have dealt with just as much or more, considering he is so young and does not have the usual entertainment that one his age would usually have access to.
“Fortunately, right where we are at, by the old Homewood Suites, there’s a lake, and he likes to go out and fish, so he’ll do that,” Ross Dillard said. “It’s just not the same for him.”
Their youngest isn’t the only one who has had a difficult time adjusting. Leila, the eldest of the three children, already had some issues appear that interfered with her everyday life as a senior in high school. One of these issues is space, considering she shares a room with both her younger siblings, and it is such a small space compared to her old home.
“I’ve shared a room with my sister my whole life, so it hasn’t really changed,” Leila said. “It’s still annoying at times because the space is so tiny and we have such different personalities.”
Despite all these struggles, the Dillards do not feel completely robbed. They are thankful for their family, friends and the people at Memorial High School who have helped them to endure these difficult times.
Erin Dillard misses many things about their house. She misses the freedom and flexibility it provides. She misses the space and time the family of five would have had together. But most of all, she misses the fact that it’s their home. Home is a word that means more than just a building to live in. It is the life you make in it with those you love.
“We just had a conversation. I said, ‘We’re going to go home,’ and my nine-year-old son said, ‘That’s not our home,’” Erin Dillard said. “So we had to have a conversation about home is where your heart and family are, and right now our home is the hotel, and our structure is our house.”