WWII vet, 91, 'saved from daughter's eviction' after $138,000 raised online

Donations immediately poured in from around the world from those touched by the military veteran in Zaleski, Ohio whom they too called 'grandpa.'

This week the fundraiser passed its goal just in time for Mr Potter's 92nd birthday on Thursday.

In 2004, as Ms Fraley tells, Mr Potter was battling a serious illness when he handed his general power of attorney rights to his daughter, Janice Cottrill.

Unbeknownst to Mr Potter, she used that power to convey the deed to the one-story, three-bedroom home he built 56-years ago to herself. 

Mr Potter says he can't understand how his family would turn on him like this.

'When I got out of the army and got on my feet on the ground, I rented a power shovel and dug a hole in the ground, built a basement and built a house on top of it,' he told ABC of the home.

He doesn't believe the house is worth all that much, having built it with the sole and simple purchase of housing his family.

When Mr Potter learned of the deed transfer in 2010 he switched power of attorney to his granddaughter, Jaclyn, who's now 35. 

Jaclyn Fraley, 35, hasn¿t spoken to her mother and stepfather in two years since she learned about their plan to place her grandfather in a nursing home 

Early this year Janice Cottrill and her husband Dean sent her father an eviction notice, saying she they had terminated his 'existing lease'
 

She hasn’t spoken to her mother and stepfather in two years since she learned about their plan to sell her grandfather's home and place him in a nursing home.

Mr Potter has already attempted to sue to get his home back, arguing that his daughter had transferred the deed to herself illegally.

He initially won a county court ruling, but last year an appeals court ruled that because the statute of limitations of four years had passed on the accusation of fraud the deed could not be handed back to Mr Potter.

Early this year, Janice Cottrill and her husband Dean sent her father an eviction notice, saying she they had terminated his ‘existing lease.’

Ms Fraley said her grandfather and her mom had argued over visitation rights for Mr Potter's autistic son, Joe, who Mrs Cottrill took over custody for in 2008.

‘I laid awake at night trying to figure out what in the world I could have done to these people to make them so angry at me,’ he told WCMH earlier this year.

With an eviction hearing due to take place on June 12, time was steadily running out for the aging vet who fought against the Japanese in the Pacific and also worked as a train dispatcher for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad.

In a bid to try and raise the money to buy his home back, granddaughter Fraley launched her campaign on GoFundMe.com, the crowd-fundraising site.

'John Potter just wants to live what remaining life he has left in the home he built with his wife, in which he raised his family, and has lived for the last 56 years,' Fraley wrote on the site.

With the money raised, she believes he now has a fair shot.

'As the donations keep coming, please know any money we have raised above the cost of the house will go to anything Grandpa may need for the house or what is needed to take care of him in his home,' Ms Fraley wrote while promising to keep those funds 100 transparent.

Ms Fraley says she plans to throw her grandfather a potluck dinner in his home on Saturday to celebrate his birthday this week.

Video: John Potter says thanks to those people to have contributed to helping him