Build Laurie’s Legacy:
Safe, Healthy Homes for the Chemically Sensitive
In Honor of Laurie DeDecker
It is with heavy hearts that we announce the death of Laurie DeDecker, a leader/advocate/mother who was a founding force in the creation of the Canary Homes project. Laurie passed away on August 9th from breast cancer after a lifetime of service and caring for others. Her memory continues to inspire us to strive for a better society and execute on her dream to create a model for healthy, affordable housing for those living with chronic illnesses. You can read the full message from Laurie’s family below.
If you were lucky enough to know Laurie in life and be inspired by her brightness, then please consider supporting the project. If you can donate to help us build the first Canary Home so Laurie’s daughter, Jessie—and others like her—can live safely; we are applying for a MISHDA grant that would match the donations with state funds for affordable housing development.
Of course, we recognize that not everyone can afford to donate, so please consider supporting the project in other ways, such as volunteering, helping to spread the message, or connecting us with potential corporate sponsors for construction materials and other services.
A Project By
With Support From
Donations Processed By
Laurie’s Passing
Hello all,
My name is Jessie, and I’m Laurie DeDecker’s daughter. My mom passed away on August 9th after an intense battle with breast cancer. My family is devastated — she was our anchor and our heart, and life doesn’t quite make sense without her. The house is quiet and empty without her voice and her laugh, and we feel her absence every second of every day.
My mother was the kindest, most compassionate person I’ve ever known. She cared deeply about her family, her friends, her coworkers, and, more often than not, complete strangers. She always offered a listening ear, a helping hand, and was never one to back down from a challenge. As a nurse, she dedicated her life to helping others, and she firmly believed that she was put on this earth to help those who can’t help themselves, and to be a voice for those who are voiceless. Her love and empathy led her to both care and fight for me for the last 20 years as I’ve struggled with chronic illness and disability. My mother never gave up on me, and she fought for me up until the very end.
ME/CFS Struggles
I got sick when I was only 12. In less than a year, I went from a straight-A, outgoing girl with big plans for her future to a ghost, too sick to even leave my bed. I lost all of my friends, all hope of a bright future…but my mom was always there for me. She took care of me when I was barely alive, she fought for years to get me a diagnosis, and finally, when I was 17, we had our answer: I have myalgic encephalomyelitis, better known as ME/CFS.
There is no cure for ME/CFS, and there are very few treatments. The medical community has only recently acknowledged that it’s a very real, extremely debilitating condition. This is my life now: constant, crushing fatigue, chronic pain that keeps me in bed most days, brain fog and memory problems, and an immune system so weak that a simple cold continues to harm my body for months. I can’t work, I can’t support myself financially, but my mom didn’t raise a quitter, so I’m still here. I’m still fighting.
Because of my ME/CFS, I also have two conditions known as Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) and Multiple Chemical Sensitivities (MCS) — the short explanation is that I am highly allergic to…well, pretty much everything. Chemicals of almost every kind (household cleaners, fragrances and dyes, off-gassing fumes from plastic, foam, paint, and glues, and the list goes on), as well as many foods, nearly all cosmetics, and household conditions like dust and (especially) mold. Whenever I’m exposed to any of the above, I have a severe, almost-instant allergic reaction: fever, blinding migraine, extreme fatigue, increased body-wide pain, nausea, sensitivity to light and sound, and more. My body basically stops working, and it takes days, often closer to a week, for me to fully recover. And that’s just from a few minutes of exposure.
All of this means that I have very few, if any, safe housing options. If there’s mold present anywhere in a house, I will react, and most existing houses and apartments have mold somewhere, especially here in Michigan where we have humid, rainy summers and snow-filled winters. Newly-built houses and apartments are also unsafe for me: vinyl flooring, treated lumber, paint and adhesives…for me, it’s like breathing in poison. And there are millions of people like me in the United States alone, who might not even know that their house is making them sick.
Laurie’s Dream: Canary Homes
And that’s where Canary Homes comes in. My mom, always on the hunt for ways to help me thrive, created Canary Homes with nothing more than her dream to build me a house where I can live safely and peacefully. She found experts in healthy building, agriculture, and marketing, and pulled them together into a team with the goal of helping me and people like me finally have the safe, healthy housing we desperately need. She dedicated five years of her life to the Canary Homes project, sacrificing what little free time she had to attend meetings and conferences, to network and find people willing to help her cause, right up until the end of her life. Her dream was to build me a safe house, and then keep building safe houses for people like me. She never gave up, and I won’t, either.
Canary Homes, in partnership with the healthy building company Hemp4Humanity, have created blueprints for our first healthy home — my home. We have the land to build it on, next to my parents’ house. We have a team of builders and volunteers ready to break ground. We have the dedication to this mission, the faith in our team, and the sincere belief that everyone deserves access to safe, affordable housing. All we need now is the funding.
How you can help
That’s where you come in. Whether my mom touched your life somehow, as she did with so many, or whether you just believe in the cause she championed, this project can’t go forward without your support. Canary Homes and Hemp4Humanity are applying for grants from the State of Michigan through MSHDA, but that will only cover part of the cost of building the first of many houses. Without you, I can’t build a safe place to live, or help anyone else in my community do the same. Without your generosity, without matching donations, my mom’s dream can’t become a reality.
I know that not everyone can give to this campaign, but there are so many ways you can help this project succeed if you can’t donate: share this campaign far and wide, to everyone you know, and to any organizations you’re part of who would be willing to help spread the word or donate to the cause. Every little bit really does count. My mom believed that if you have the courage to ask for help, the right people will hear you and offer their help — please become part of the network helping to achieve her dream, in whatever way you can.
My deepest gratitude to everyone reading this, whether you’re new to the project or a returning donor. Your support meant the world to my mom, and it continues to mean the world to me. I miss my mom every day — her smile, her hugs, the way she never gave up on me — and by launching this campaign, I’m honoring her by building what she passionately envisioned. The world she envisioned for me, and everyone like me.
Please, join me in honoring Laurie in whatever way you’re able.
All my love,
Jess