Chelmsford School Helps Beloved Teacher After Family Tragedy
GREENVILLE, NH (CBS) - It's one thing to fall on hard times, but quite another to watch your family fall apart. For Annette and Tom Gallagher of Greenville, New Hampshire, they're experiencing both but not giving up hope.
"I'm devastated and I don't understand. It's one thing to lose your house, but I feel like I lost my son too," Annette Gallagher said.
Last week they watched their home burn down. The fire was started by their 20-year-old son James who battles depression. He's now in jail.
"He's battling something we don't know much about and it's inside," Tom Gallagher said.
The family says their son needs serious medical help. "He doesn't need jail. He needs help," Annette said.
Back in 2011 Tom Gallagher suffered a severe spinal cord injury that left him paralyzed from the waist down. Through it all, with his service dog by his side he never quits.
In 2012 the McCarthy Middle School in Chelmsford, where he teaches and coaches, helped remodel his classroom and home to make it wheelchair accessible.
"My students are everything. They are everything. This community in Chelmsford they step up," Gallagher cried.
Now their newly remolded home is now gone, but their primary concern are not the things that perished in the flame but their son lost in depression. "Yes he lit the fire, but we love him. He's my son," Annette said.
Through all the pain and loss the Gallagher family says they will never give up because they are bonded by love.
"Life is not easy. You're going to run into things you don't like but it's what you do after those things that counts the most," Gallagher said.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help the family. "I am hoping I get my son back," Annette said.
