Jamie Guinn and his wife, Melissa, spent hours closely monitoring the river near their Minneapolis, North Carolina, home in the wake of Hurricane Helene. The couple were sheltering at home with their 8-year-old son, River, when life changed in a matter of moments. The water quickly infiltrated the couple’s home, and as they tried to escape to safety, floodwaters swept Melissa Guinn away.
Now, loved ones are trying to raise money for Jamie Guinn and the couple’s four sons. Guinn told Fox News that his wife was his best friend, and he doesn’t know how he will “make it without her.“
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Life changed in an instant for the family.
Guinn told Fox News that he, Melissa, and River were safe at home and watching the water when a loud bang changed everything.
“All of a sudden, I heard something. Sounded like an explosion. And me and my wife went running through the house and the back door was shattered,” he told the news outlet. “So I ran to go to the garage to get something to block the garage off and our garage was gone.”
The family's home began to crumble.
Guinn recalled the terrifying September 27 event. “It sounded like a cannon going off. I just remember being crushed by the house falling all around me,” he said. “And I can remember screaming for my little boy, and I could hear him screaming. And somehow, we dug through the house where it collapsed almost down into the river and I found him.”
He looked up and saw his wife standing where their home once stood.
Guinn said he took his eyes off his wife for just a second.
“And my wife was still up on the top where the house was. And she screamed at me, ‘Babe, watch out!’ And so I tried to grab my little boy and threw him on my back because I figured it was another slide, and by the time I turned back around to try to make myself alert … she was gone,” a heartbroken Guinn told Fox News.
“So I went to scream and was screaming for her, and I couldn’t find my little boy. He turned around, and he just told me, ‘Daddy, I think mommy’s gone,'” Guinn described. “So we kept screaming and hollering for her and no one ever could find her. And at that time, I can’t even remember if there was any part of the house left or if it was gone. It was all a blur.”
Losing his wife broke Guinn's heart.
He told Fox News his wife meant everything to him. “She was my absolute best friend. I really don’t know how I’m going to make it without her. We spent every day together. Everything I’ve done, she was involved in the same way as every other,” Guinn said. “Just going from having that person in your life every day to literally gone in the blink of an eye, it just shows how often you might take for granted being with someone.”
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Loved ones created a GoFundMe account for the family.
While grieving his wife, Guinn must care for their four sons, Brandon, Sebastian, Ethan, and River. Guinn’s coworker, Brandy Burroughs, created a GoFundMe account to help ease some of the family’s financial pain during this incredibly difficult time.
“The real tragedy of this event was the passing of his sweet wife Melissa Hensley Guinn. Melissa was a mother to 4 sons; Brandon, Sebastian, Ethan and River, who she leaves behind,” Burroughs wrote on the page. ” She was a great mother, wife, daughter, sister and friend to anyone that was in her life. She was beautiful, strong, passionate, generous and an all around sweet soul. She will be missed greatly by everyone that she touched in life.”
The page has raised nearly $76,000 of a $90,000 goal thus far.
