Son of Lethbridge couple gives gift of a lifetime after trying year

Son rebuilds his parents home after fire A Lethbridge, Alberta man took it upon himself to rebuild his parents home after it was burnt down in a fire while his dad was in hospital.

Lethbridge, Alta. — Rick and Brenda Barva have had a trying past nine months, to say the least.

Back on May 27th, 2019, Rick was involved in a serious head-on collision with a semi-trailer near Magrath. He was airlifted by HALO air ambulance to Chinook Regional Hospital, where he was stabilized by the emergency response team.

From there, he was taken to Foothills Hospital in Calgary, where he would continue with his recovery.

Then came June 29th, 2019, when the couple’s house was lost in a tragic fire while they were still in Calgary.

That’s when Brenda’s son, Brock Fulkerth, a drafting technician at Ashcroft Master Builders, decided he had to do something.

“From that day, I just kind of made it my mission to take care of this and make this happen for them. Because there was so much that she had to deal with, and our family had to deal with,” Fulkerth said, adding he didn’t want his mother to have to worry about a place to come back to.

He made it a labour of love, with the support from his team at Ashcroft, to rebuild his mother’s home.

Ashcroft general manager Dave Bode explained that not long after Fulkerth became aware of the fire, he called him into his office to chat.

“We sat there and we talked — actually, we didn’t talk — he did,” Bodell continued. “In a very excited manner about what he wanted to do, and how he wanted to do this.”

A nearly eight-month process culminated on Thursday afternoon at 831 21st Street South, where roughly 200 friends, family, neighbours and those involved in the process of rebuilding the Barva’s home turned out to celebrate its unveiling to Rick and Brenda.

“Everyone from the GoFundMe that was created to help them out, a lot of those donors, and everyone involved came out. That kind of support just speaks volumes to the kind of people that my parents are,” Fulkerth said.

Brenda and Rick had no input whatsoever on the floorplans, design choices or the furnishings. When they arrived in an Ashcroft truck blindfolded, and the bagpipes began to play as the blindfolds came off, it was their first time seeing their new home.

And they were floored by what they saw, and the support they received.

“We were expecting a few people, but I had no idea that there would be this many people here, just unbelievable. When I took the blindfold off and then looked at the picture and turned around, I had no idea,” Rick said.

“Very, very amazing and lots of love,” Brenda added.

Knowing that Brock and Ashcroft were working away obviously had Rick and Brenda interested in how the final product would look, but they managed to stay away so they were able to take in the experience.

“I work at the hospital, so instead of going down 9th Avenue we’ve had to go down 10th Avenue instead to avoid it,” Brenda explained.

“The hardest part about this place is that my parents live on 9th Avenue about five houses down,” Rick continued. “So I would go to their house, go into their driveway, back out and go back to Mayor Magrath Drive.”

It took an incredible amount of work from a lot of people to get to this point, and Fulkerth says it’s hard to put into words what it meant to see the looks on Rick and Brenda’s faces.

“It was very surreal. I drew this on a piece of paper like eight months ago, and to just have it come to life and knowing what their reaction was going to be like, it was still way more than I thought.”

Ditto for Rick and Brenda, when reflecting on what their son had done.

“It’s an old house, and he’s had his challenges but he just really wanted to do this for us and we love him so much,” Brenda stated.

“You can tell he’s got the ability, and it’s certainly something that I could never do myself,” Rick continued.

And not only is the house now done, but Brenda says she knows that there’s love between the walls.