In the last three months since our daughter Emma’s death, we’ve been overwhelmed - and not just by grief.
With love too - from so many. I want to share one more glimpse of a December week we’ll never forget. Our walls at home have been, well, struggling from some time now - after the plaster we had initially put on it never cured right. Every once in awhile, when another piece of it would chip off, I got a sense from Monique how much she disliked the look and feel of the main living area in our home.
As a way to physically refresh the space and do something to lift the gloomy atmosphere after the funeral, I reached out to explore the cost of a legit paint job (when the boys and I tried painting Monique’s bathroom for her birthday, she sweetly thanked us for the white walls with barely-perceptible-blue-still-showing-underneath and said, “let’s get some professionals to do it next time, okay?)
So, I called up Accent Paint here in Cache Valley, because of so many good reviews online. As their area manager Zack Phipps walked around our home getting square footage estimates, it seemed like I should explain why we were wanting to repaint, and I showed him the room Emma had slept in.
I anticipated a return call in a few days, frankly bracing a little for the cost of a truly professional job. But I didn’t hear from Zack when I anticipated, until one day at work when he called.
“So, Jacob, every year around Christmas our team looks for someone needing a little extra support in the community. It’s something we like to come together and do as a team. I spoke with our owner, Matt Fackrell, and we’d like to see if you’d allow us to come do that for your family?”
I stood there listening to the phone, and didn’t know what to say. Zach didn’t know our family had lost our full-time job earlier that year and had been struggling financially.
“Oh man, are you serious?”
They were serious. Over the next week, the Accent Paint team got rolling with helping us select paint colors, scheduling a time, and preparing us for what a world class painting job would take.
Jessica Vaughn, superintendent for the Logan area, gently nudged us to consider a two-toned paint job in the master bedroom, even though we felt naturally wanted to simplify their process as much as possible.
And then the team arrived: Noah, Joshua and Anthony did the bulk of work - with Seth and Rob helping with some of the drywall texture at first.
We thought it would be a day of painting, but they spent a whole day just preparing the place (oh, this is what a professional paint job looks like!)






We stayed away from the home when the paint fumes were strong. One day, we got this note from Jessica, “we have another little surprise for you guys….”
Jessica had painted this on the wall. “The painter will be painting over this soon, but I wanted you guys to get to see it and know it’s always there under the fresh paint on your dining room wall.”
We were both moved. What a perfect symbol for our daughter! In our belief, always right there - even if we can’t see her.
Here’s a video showing this:
And some before and after pictures:
And here’s the amazing crew at a celebration we did at the end:
Special thanks to Matt Fackrell and his team at Accent Paint for giving us a Christmas gift we will never, ever forget.