This holiday season, we’re featuring the incredible O’Callaghan family story.
Some families have trials that span generations. For the O’Callaghan family, it’s retinoblastoma – a challenge woven into a 30-year story with Family House.
In 1996, Gino and Kristin O’Callaghan arrived at Family House when their sons Brandon and Garrett were both diagnosed with retinoblastoma, a rare eye cancer. Their daughter Terra would soon receive the same diagnosis. Nearly 30 years later as an adult, Brandon and his wife Joanna found themselves walking a familiar path when their daughter Penelope was diagnosed with retinoblastoma at six weeks old.
“I will never forget the moment we first learned she had tumors,” Joanna recalls. “But knowing that at Family House we always had a clean, safe place to sleep, friendly faces to greet us, and a meal waiting for us was an enormous relief. It lifted a weight off our shoulders when it felt like the rest of our world was crashing down.”
Read their full story in our 2026 Year in Review.
No family should have to worry about a place to lay their heads while their child is navigating a life-threatening illness – especially during the holiday season. Give the gift of a home for the holidays, when families need to be away from their own.
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