NEWBERRY, S.C. — The Newberry community is coming together to support one of their own.
Local resident Meg Muir has been working on her recovery after having a stroke.
"You never really think that anything like that happens," said Joy Sheppard. "But it happens here."
Joy Sheppard is talking about what happened after her friend suffered a stroke in her Newberry home in May.
Sheppard, and her two friends, Tina Graham and Kristi Palmer, knew they wanted to help.
"My immediate concern was, we've got to get some money for her so that she's not worried about paying her bills and she can focus on getting better," Palmer said.
The three women set up an online fundraiser and got to work planning an event to raise even more money for Muir.
They asked local businesses and vendors to contribute donations and gifts for a silent auction. In just three days, they had more than 80 items for their event.
"Things just kept coming in to be auctioned off," Sheppard said. "They kept running out of spaces to put everything.”
"People that didn't even know Meg ended up there and bidding on things," Graham said.
Two days after the auction, the three women told Muir the total amount they’d raised for her: $11,000.
"She immediately started crying and, you know, it was, it was a crying moment," Graham said. "I mean, it was for me to I teared up, because it was awesome.”
Now, two months later, they say community members are still thinking of Muir.
"Meg calls me and she says, 'so this guy came to fix my air conditioning, and when he was there fixing it, he looked at me and he says, are you the Meg?'" Graham said. "And she kind of looked at him and he says, 'well, they had the silent auction for you. I bid on some of that stuff'.”
The women say the way Newberry rallied around Muir through her medical emergency and recovery is one example of how their community looks out for their own.
"When you live in this community, you really become a family," Palmer said. "And I know that that sounds probably cliché, but it is in fact the truth."
"You feel the love and the power of this community," Sheppard said.
“I wouldn’t live anywhere else and I wouldn’t have any other friends," Graham said.
Muir is still recovering from the stroke and is now out and about in the community again. She says she’s working on handwritten thank-you cards for all who donated.