Local running group helps make a ‘Christmas miracle’ for displaced Newport Beach couple
The term “home for the holidays” means something different and much more special this year to Newport Beach residents Judy and Lou Candelaria.
They walked into their new unit at the Promontory Point apartments on Thursday morning. Several members of a Corona del Mar women’s running group were there to surprise them with their new place.
Everyone was calling it a Christmas miracle. For Judy, 77, and Lou, 87, it was a sublime end to a rough 2022.
Ever since the Candelarias moved to Newport Beach from Chicago more than 30 years ago, two things have been true. They called unit No. 453 at the apartment complex just south of Pacific Coast Highway home, and they went to Our Lady Queen of Angels Catholic church.
But on a fateful Sunday morning in September, they lost nearly everything in the four-alarm Promontory Point fire.
“We heard no fire alarms, but we heard banging on the doors and people yelling and screaming,” Judy Candelaria said. “I said to Lou, ‘Oh my God, there must really be a party somewhere.’”
Chaos reigned in the hours to follow. Judy said she was allowed back into the apartment but only to get essentials — medicine and shoes for Lou and glasses for herself.
The Irvine Co., which operates Promontory Point, put the Candelarias in another temporary unit at the property. It was something, but they lost their view of the harbor and Balboa Island that they had grown to love through the decades.
Garth and Claudia Flint, who also attend Our Lady Queen of Angels, heard about the Candelarias’ plight. They told their daughter Shannon Eusey, a prominent member of the Inspiration Point running group. The runners sprinted into action to help.
The CdM-based running group values high-level competition. Five of the members — Eusey, Linda Wirta, Jennifer Buckley, Jill Carter and Julie Hart — have run all six of the major world marathons together. But it also values community and stewardship.
“This group is not only supportive in a good way, activity-wise, but it’s super-supportive of each other,” Eusey said. “Kids with illness, I mean, just life. It’s amazing.”
Eusey and Wirta helped the Candelarias take care of their lease, but it was a much more involved team effort to help with furnishing and designing their new apartment. One member of the running group, Malia Petrucci, owns a design group called Tru Studio, which played a major role.
“We just all rallied and set up a way for people to sign up and purchase things,” Petrucci said. “It just all came together. We didn’t have a TV, and all of a sudden someone just sent money and ordered a TV. It was really a joint effort, after realizing what their Christmas would potentially look like.”
Eusey said it has definitely taken a village. On Wednesday night, her son and two of his friends were trying to get a sofa into the new apartment.
As for Judy and Lou, they didn’t know what was coming.
“About a month ago or so, Claudia had said, ‘Judy, you’re going to get a surprise,’” Judy Candelaria said. “And I said, ‘Oh, what?’ She said that Shannon and her group wanted to do a Christmas miracle for us. That’s all I knew.”
They walked into their new unit at Promontory Point — fully furnished, thanks to the Inspiration Point runners — on Thursday with their longtime friends, the Flints.
Along with members of the running group, the Candelarias’ nephew, Don Gilmartin, was able to be present and in on the surprise. Buckley, who also attends Our Lady Queen of Angels, said a prayer to bless the new home.
“I’m overwhelmed that someone could do this for someone else, to just take the time to do it,” Judy Candelaria said. “I’m so happy.”
They again have a great view from their patio, and in the corner of their new living room sits a Christmas tree.
Blessings are all around the Candelarias, who are more than grateful to be home for the holidays.
“We really wanted to help them,” Wirta said. “It was going to be a Christmas miracle that we pulled off for this well-deserving couple.”
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