By Sarah Culton
sarah.culton@leaderpub.com

 

Hurricane Harvey left the home of Kay Voight, a 75-year-old retired teacher from Port Arthur, flooded. Voight, without anyone to help her move herself or her belongings, remained in her home for more than a week, walking through the flooded halls in a pair of old flip-flops.
“I shouldn’t have done that. But I couldn’t do much else,” Voight said. “I didn’t have help.”
She may have remained that way, she said, if it weren’t for a local couple stepped up to help.
Paul, 48, and Doris, 49, Humplik, operators of Eagle Climatized Storage in Port Neches, helped Voight and allowed her and her dog to stay with them until she found a new place to live.
Paul spent 10 12-hour days pulling wet carpet out of Voight’s home and loading her salvageable belongings into a trailer. Paul even dedicated his birthday to helping Voight, who was a stranger to him.
“[Paul] has really taken on the role of being [Voight’s] helper with this project,” Doris said. “At first, she didn’t want to leave, but we knew we had to get her out of there, so we convinced her to stay in our little apartment. It was the right thing.”
The Humpliks met Voight when the senior citizen came into Eagle Climatized Storage and shared her story with the couple. The next day, Paul showed up at Voight’s door to pull up her wet carpet and move her furniture, much of which was heavy and full of antiques.
“It was a lot of work,” Paul said. “But it’s almost done.”
Now, Paul has pulled up most of the flooring and, with the help of Voight, packed up most of her belongs. He still needs to clean out Voight’s garage and take out her cabinets, he said.
Since the first day Paul started working on Voight’s house in early September, the Humpliks have contacted local churches, including First Baptist Church and United Methodist, to help with the project.
“For so long, [Paul] was doing it all by himself,” Doris said. “He really is a hero. He’s amazing.”
Since helping Voight, the Humpliks have even been helping churches identify other seniors in need, so that they may offer assistance to them as well, the Humpliks said.
Paul said he is aware that dedicating more than 120 hours of work to a total stranger may seem strange to some, but for him, it is the right thing to do.
According to Paul, when he first pulled up to Voight’s home, hers was the only home in the neighborhood to not have any debris piled up outside.
To Paul, this should have been a clear sign that her neighbors should have checked up on her. But nobody did. And Paul feels that waswrong and careless.
“[Voight] has been a school teacher for 40 years and dedicated her whole life into educating our future,” Paul said. “Then when it’s time for someone to help her, no one is there to help her. That just kind of broke my heart. I told everyone that I’m going to take care of her.”
Both Paul and Doris said that the community needs to band together during times of crisis and take care of society’s most vulnerable members.
“Both of us just have a heart for people that are alone,” Doris said. “I just hate the thought of [Voight] struggling and being by herself. I just put myself in her position.
Voight, for her part, said she is incredibly grateful to the Humpliks and that their kindness helped make a “horrible situation” bearable.
“[Paul] is just a wonderful person to come in and take on this project and take care of everything that needs to be done,” Voight said.
Voight is currently staying in an apartment in Port Neches, a transition that was made easier by the Humpliks’ help, Voight said.
“I was down here by myself with no one to help me,” Voight said. “They were so kind. It was wonderful.”