By Kayla DeKraker
It’s been an emotional rollercoaster for Ben and Erin Napier after a fire destroyed their hotel renovation last year, but they have hope.
“The last 10 months, I feel like especially right after the fire, like my emotions were just all over the place,” admitted Mallorie Rasberry, who the Napiers worked with on the renovation project. “Like one minute I would be like determined to like redo, rebuild better and bigger and then the next moment I’m just like I’m done. I’m out. And then like you just go through that cycle of I guess grief, and we’ve had 10 months to process it now. And I could see like the past 10 months have been like really tough on me. I think all of us, you know, just emotionally, it’s just like, it’s just been a lot.”
Last August, a fire tore through the Heirloom Hotel in Laurel, Mississippi just as the Napiers, Erin’s cousin Jim Rasberry and his wife Mallorie, and their friend Josh Nowell completed renovations.
“For us,” Erin said on “The Heirloom Podcast,” “it’s been like we are watching y’all process this and feeling like it’s something you have to do and it’s not something that we, for the first time, we can’t help you. Like we can’t help you with this, and that has been hard.”
But they have plans to move forward.
Related: 5 Fun Facts About HOME TOWN’S Ben and Erin Napier
“We have been working for 20 years to make our town shine like we know it can shine. That’s what we’ve all been doing together,” Nowell said. “I know this — that for the next 20 years, Lord willing, we will continue that work. And so, as far as what’s next for us, I am hopeful for the next season of life.”
He added, “As far as what’s next, I know that I don’t know what’s going to come next. I didn’t know we’d be where we are now, but I’m grateful that I’m here with you guys. I’m grateful that I get to do this with y’all. And we’re gonna do it again.”
Mallorie chimed in, “We’re a lot better off than we were 10 months ago.”
“God has a plan that none of us know about, and that is the story of our whole life,” Erin emphasized. “Ben’s supposed to be a lawyer. I’m supposed to be living in Birmingham, designing magazines. And that was my plan. That was my small and that was [Ben’s] small plan. And then God took us a totally different [route].”
A new HGTV series titled HOME TOWN: INN THIS TOGETHER detailed the renovation and the unexpected tragedy. It premiered in May.
Ahead of the premiere, Erin wrote on Instagram, “TONIGHT is the beginning of INN THIS TOGETHER: a new series that will last 4 weeks, and it’s about a hotel, sure. But it’s really about how brave and creative and talented our friends are who put everything on the line to save a dead corner of our downtown.”
She added, “We’ll help them along the way, but they are the stars of this story that you will root for and cheer with and cry with. This show is about the things past generations passed down, adoption and the grasping for legacy, building while facing setbacks, craftsmanship, loss, and joy.”
They hope to rebuild, but according to PEOPLE, their insurance company has still not approved their claim.
Read Next: Ben and Erin Napier Kick Off New Show on HGTV
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