It happened the way it happens for too many couples. Somebody gets hurt, and there's no health insurance. They struggle along on one person's salary.

They scrimp, dropping cable and Internet, keeping the heat low, stretching dollars at the grocery store and conserving hot water. Despite their best efforts, they begin to fall behind on their bills.And one morning there's a knock at the door, and it's a guy with stunning bad news."He said, 'I just bought your house,'" said Gary Smith, who lives at 246 Rowe St., Tamaqua, with his wife, Kirsten. "He told me he'd bought it at a sheriff's sale."He also said that he wasn't here to throw anybody out, that he'd work with us," he added. "He said maybe we could rent it while we worked things out."Kirsten, who had been upstairs getting ready to leave for work, came downstairs in time to hear the conversation. Distraught, she left for work.The house had been purchased by Global Real Estate Solutions of Stroudsburg, which conducts real estate business in seven Pennsylvania counties. The man who'd knocked on their door, Mike Price, thought about the couple as he drove home."I was thinking about that saying, that when God closes a door sometimes He opens a window," Price said. "And I was thinking, yes, but it's the time in the hallway that's bad.""We'd (Global Real Estate Solutions) had a very good year, and we'd been talking about finding a way to give back," Price said. "We'd been talking about finding a way to do something for a veteran."Price's grandfather, John, buried in Mahanoy City, was a World War II Veteran. Each year on Memorial Day, the Prices put his favorite flower, red geraniums, on his grave.Price called Smith. Was he a veteran? Yes, Smith told him, he'd served in the U.S. Army from 1984 to 1990, at Fort Benning, Ga., and at the Hometown Armory, Reserves, the 109th Infantry."And there it was, our 'give back' like it was meant to be," Price said. "I told him that we were going to give them back the house; he gave me Kirsten's number at work and I told her too."'Saved her sanity'Kirsten was working as a paralegal in the Philadelphia area when she met her first husband, who is from Schuylkill County. In 2003, they had moved into the Rowe Street house, which was owned by his family. When the couple divorced in 2008, all Kirsten wanted in lieu of alimony was to have the house put in her name, which was accomplished.Room by room, she started to remodel, gutting the old lathe and plaster."It had been a rough time, and I found that working on the house was therapeutic," she said. "It saved my sanity."She met Gary through mutual friends. At the time the two settled into the Rowe Street house, Kirsten was working through a temp agency at Mrs. T's/Ateeco, Shenandoah, and Gary was employed by a flooring contractor. The two didn't live extravagantly, but they were able to expand their home to include a rescue dog, a hound named Bishop, and a couple cats.Then Gary severely injured his shoulder, and the couple embarked on a two-year battle to receive medical assistance. Kirsten's temp job ended, but after a search, she was hired in the housekeeping department at the Hometown Nursing Home, Hometown.Keep believingThere was never enough money, always plenty of love. The bills kept coming, oil, propane, electric, taxes. Then came that knock on the door.Mike Price visited the Smiths at their home Tuesday morning. As he stepped outside to take a phone call, Gary and Kirsten rushed to tell the rest of the story that Mike is taking steps to restore Internet service to their house, so that Kirsten can do paralegal work for Global Real Estate Solutions, and that the company also plans to hire Gary to advise and supervise flooring jobs."He gave us this incredible gift," Gary said, as Bishop tilted his muzzle to lick tears from Gary's cheeks. "It's something that just doesn't happen in this day and age."Mike came back inside to say his goodbyes."Thank you for your service," he told Gary, and to both of them, "This couldn't have happened to better people."As they hug their goodbyes, they are standing below a sign on the wall which reads, "A house is built from boards and beams, a home is built with love and dreams."Kirsten said that they have a lot to be thankful for this season. Their home, yes, but much more than that a renewal of the faith they never quite lost."For everyone out there who is going through hard times, keep trying, keep going," she said. "Keep believing."