Franklin family receives RV to live in after losing son, home to floodwaters in McClure

Stepping into what remains of Tracey and Robin Franklin’s home is suffocating. You can smell the flood damage before you see it.

Robbin Christopher Franklin

Floor fans drone on in almost every room of the main floor but still struggle to circulate the heavy, humid air.

Parts of tile flooring have been scrubbed clean and rotten wood floorboards removed, but some grit from the Mississippi River floodwaters just won’t come up.

The kitchen cabinets — waterlogged and warped — have swollen shut and now incubate black mold.

A framed collection of slightly damaged photographs sits next to boxes of salvaged belongings Thursday at Tracey and Robin Franklin's home in McClure, Illinois. Tracey Franklin said she hopes to restore the photos of her son, Robbin Christopher Franklin, who died in the flood.BEN MATTHEWS

On his wife’s orders, Robin naps upstairs — the only dry floor in the house after four months of flooding. As her husband rests, Tracey stands in the living room gazing past piles of the family’s few salvageable belongings.

For the Franklins, the hardships of losing their home to the floods have been dwarfed by the devastation of losing of one of their family members to it — their son, 31-year-old Robbin Christopher.

Tracey said Christopher was generous and funny, with “an extremely good heart.”

Christopher served in the U.S. Army for eight years, attaining the rank of specialist and doing tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Black mold is seen on the walls of Robbin Christopher Franklin's closet at the Franklin home in McClure, Illinois.Submitted

The veteran had recently moved back from Reno, Nevada, and was living with his parents at the time of the flooding, which ravaged McClure, Illinois.

Robin found his son floating in the water near the family home while boating to town early May 29. Tracey was working at Comfort Suites in Jackson when she received the call.

As the Franklin family dealt with the loss of their son, the floodwaters continued to rise.

A storm June 21 claimed the home’s front porch — one of Tracey’s favorite places to watch a sunset. By late July, the home was uninhabitable.

Evaluations by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Illinois Emergency Management Agency estimated the Franklin home filled with about 40 inches of water, but the prospects of relief funding remain uncertain. Tracey estimated it could take a year or longer to receive assistance.

Black mold is seen on the walls of Robbin Christopher Franklin's bedroom at the Franklin home in McClure, Illinois.Submitted

Without utilities to cook for the family, the Franklins had no choice but to either eat out or grill, and the daily dining expenses began to add up.

East Cape Girardeau, Illinois, resident and U.S. Postal Service worker Ashley Sturm heard about the Franklins’ situation while offering mold removal services to flood victims.

The first time she saw the state of the Franklin family’s home, she cried.

“It was horrible,” Sturm said. “Even with what I can spray, everything has to be torn down, and they can’t live in that — but they were living in that.”

After seeing Tracey and Robin’s situation, Strum began reaching out to local RV dealerships for donations, but no one returned her calls.

Tracey Franklin watches as her son, Dustin, attempts to detach a crawfish from his glove while removing dozens of the crustaceans from the family's basement Thursday in McClure, Illinois.BEN MATTHEWS

No one, that is, except for Kyle McDowell.

McDowell South RV in Jackson, located just across the street from Tracey’s workplace, donated a trailer for the Franklins. Upon learning Tracey had no way to cook, McDowell took his generosity even further by upgrading the donation from a trailer to a fifth-wheel RV with a kitchen.

The Franklins can now continue cleanup efforts with fewer risks — physically and financially — thanks to the recently donated RV.

For Tracey, however, nothing can truly make the recovery process easy.

“One day I’ll get in here, and maybe clean all the cobwebs, but it’s just so depressing,” Tracey said. “Since losing Chris, the house just doesn’t have a meaning for me anymore.”

While standing in her garage Thursday, Tracey Franklin shows an aerial image of her home taken during the flooding in McClure, Illinois.BEN MATTHEWS

For Sturm, finding assistance for the Franklins was only one item on her to-do list. She said she hopes to raise awareness for about four other families in similar situations.

“Thank goodness for community,” Sturm said. “I have a really big heart and a really big mouth, but my pocketbook is not really that big. I just do what I can do.”

Sturm created a GoFundMe account for Tracey and Robin which can be found at www.gofundme.com/f/hope-for-tracey-amp-robbin-franklin-lost-son-2-flood.