BROOKHAVEN
Foundation offers affordable housing for transplant patients and caregivers BY BETH E. CONCEPCIÓN Mary Evans showed Becky Merrill around the two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment in a complex that sits on the Brookhaven city line. “The kitchen has everything you need,” Evans said as she opened the cabinets. “That’s good because my passion is cooking,” Merrill said. Evans could have been an Airbnb host welcoming a guest, but the truth is more complicated than that: Merrill will be staying in one of seven apartments offered by the Jeffrey Campbell Evans Foundation, a foundation set up to provide affordable lodging for transplant patients and their caregivers. Merrill’s brother Richard received a double-lung transplant May 26 at Emory Transplant Center. Merrill will be taking care of him in the foundation’s apartment for at least four weeks after he is discharged. Merrill lives in Acworth, but she and her brother need to live close to Emory while he recovers. “You are my passion, not your brother,” Evans said to Merrill. “We know what it’s like to be a caregiver, and it’s not easy.” Evans knows all too well. In fact, the foundation was born out of grief after the death of her son, the foundation’s namesake. Evans’ son Jeffrey Campbell Evans was 23 when he fell ill with an unknown virus that attacked his heart. Within five days of contracting the virus, his heart had ballooned to the size of a soccer ball and lost 80 percent of its function. “I’ll never forget passing someone in the hospital looking at X-rays,” she said. “I heard, ‘Oh my God! Whose heart is this?’ It was Jeff’s.” Her son spent three years on the trans-
Brookhaven city clerk wins award The Georgia Municipal Clerks Association has awarded Brookhaven City Clerk Susan Hiott the 2021 “Clerk of the Year” award. Hiott, who has worked for the city since 2013, received the award at the association’s annual meeting in Savannah, Ga. Before Brookhaven, Hiott served as the first clerk for the city of Roswell. Hiott’s accomplishments include being the first clerk in the state to
12 SEPTEMBER 2021 | REPORTER NEWSPAPERS
Mary Evans (right) and Bob Evans greet caregiver Becky Merrill. (Beth E. Concepción) She decided to start a foundation to help caregivers with affordable housing. She told Mary Evans (left) shows caregiver Becky Merrill all the kitchen her husband Bob and supplies in the apartment provided by Jeffrey Campbell Evans their other son Brad Foundation for Transplant Housing. (Beth E. Concepción) about her idea. “’Let’s go for it!’ they plant list before he passed away from carsaid,” according to Evans. diomyopathy and its various complicaThey opened the first apartment in tions. 2017, sourcing all the furnishings from “There’s always a hole in your heart,” flea markets and estate sales. Four years Evans said. “The grieving process never later, there are seven apartments, all in ends.” the same complex. The foundation proNearly 10 years later, Evans said she vides the residences at low cost or no cost was sitting at her kitchen table when she to those who qualify for financial assishad an epiphany. She remembered what tance through the Georgia Transplant it was like when Jeff had to live no more Foundation. than 10 miles away from the hospital Evans said she has even bigger plans. while on the transplant list. “We want to have a standalone transplant “The bills at home don’t stop,” Evans house in Atlanta to help more people.” said.
receive Master Municipal Clerk certification from the International Institute of Municipal Clerks in 2008. She served as the president of the Georgia Municipal Clerk Association in 2010, and she holds a master’s degree in business administration. “We already knew that Susan Hiott was the best in the business, and now the rest of Georgia knows it too,” said Brookhaven Mayor John Ernst. “From day one of Cityhood, Susan Hiott has set the standard for leadership, customer service and quality of work. We are elated that GMA has recognized her achievements, as Susan has earned this distinction.”
John Funny resigns as social justice commission chair After qualifying as a candidate for Brookhaven’s City Council election, John Funny resigned from his role of chairman of Brookhaven’s Social Justice, Race, and Equity Commission. Funny announced his resignation during the commission’s Aug. 19 meeting. The city established the commission in September 2020 in response to last summer’s national outcry around social justice and police
Evans is raising money now, with the hope to begin construction in less than two years in Brookhaven’s Executive Park. There definitely is a need. More than a thousand transplants were performed in Georgia last year, according to data provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The foundation has helped 132 patients and their caregivers since launching. More than 70 percent of these families made the trek to Emory for aftercare. About 20 percent commuted just down the street to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. The final 10 percent are affiliated with Piedmont Hospital. For Merrill, the apartment will be perfect for her and the rest of her family to care for her brother. “This is an answer to prayers,” she said. “That’s what this is.”
brutality. The commission is tasked with recommending improvements to the city’s vision and mission statement, city hiring and retention practices, procurement and contracting, and policing. Funny thanked the mayor and council for selecting him to lead the commission and all of the commissioners for their work over the past year. “I am grateful for the opportunity afforded me over the past year, to learn from you,” he said. “My hope is that I was able to likewise allow you to learn a little something or two from me.” Tywana Minor is the new chair of the city’s Social Justice, Race, and Equity Commission. — SAMMIE PURCELL reporternewspapers.net DUN
