After her partner spent more than a year in the hospital, Jackie Dove began searching for a home that could accommodate his needs without sacrificing the vintage details she loved

NEED TO KNOW

• Jackie Dove’s fiancé, Juddy Magee, survived a serious stroke in 2024 and spent more than a year hospitalized while working on his recovery
• Realizing their Brooklyn apartment wasn’t wheelchair accessible, Dove began searching for a new home and found a Manhattan apartment that had remained largely unchanged since 1945
• She’s now preparing to renovate its original kitchen with modifications tailored to Magee’s needs while preserving the apartment’s vintage character

When Jackie Dove’s fiancé, Juddy Magee, suffered a life-threatening brain bleed in June 2024, the couple’s plans for their future took an unexpected turn. Magee survived, but after spending more than a year in the hospital, it became clear that the Brooklyn apartment they shared would no longer accommodate his needs.

“This, unfortunately, is rooted in a tragedy but has become a bright spot in our lives,” Dove, 40, tells PEOPLE exclusively. With Magee, now 39, using a wheelchair as he continues his recovery, she began searching for a home where they could comfortably build their future together.

According to a GoFundMe created to support Magee and his family, he suffered a sudden, severe brain bleed on June 6, 2024, that left him in critical condition at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. Doctors were unsure what caused the stroke, but Magee gradually began making progress with his speech, cognitive abilities and mobility as he underwent rehabilitation.

For Dove, a program manager in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry, finding a home that could accommodate Magee’s changing needs became a priority. With the help of real estate agent Neal Young of Brown Harris Stevens, she began exploring apartments in a Manhattan neighborhood the couple loved, looking for a place that offered both accessibility and the possibility of making it their own.

One apartment immediately stood out, though it was far from move-in ready in the traditional sense. Built in 1945, the unit still had nearly all of its original fixtures, from the kitchen cabinets and stove to decades-old details that had survived largely untouched.

“When we saw our now-apartment, we knew it was our forever home,” Dove recalls. “All at once we saw the risk of buying a place frozen in time ‘as-is’, and the potential of a beautiful blank slate.”

The apartment’s condition allowed Young to negotiate a price that fit their budget, and its unusually spacious kitchen helped seal the deal. Although the couple knew renovations would be necessary, they were drawn to the chance to create a home that suited their needs without losing the character that made it special.

Dove later shared the apartment’s transformation on TikTok, giving viewers a look inside the original 1945 kitchen and the changes she has planned. But behind the vintage fixtures and renovation progress was a much more personal reason for taking on such an ambitious project.

The apartment had belonged to the same family since its original owner, a woman named Deborah, purchased it when the building opened in 1945. After Deborah died approximately 20 years ago, her grandson used the unit for storage until Dove and Magee purchased it, becoming its first new owners in eight decades.

Dove also learned that Deborah’s relatives had lived in surrounding apartments, and many of the building’s current residents had grown up there. She says that sense of family has remained one of her favorite things about their new home, making the building feel special beyond its original architecture.

As she began preparing the apartment for renovations, Dove discovered something that made her feel even more connected to its history. Beneath layers of old paint, she found that some rooms had once been painted the exact same colors she had chosen for their updates.

“We now call it ‘honoring Debbie’ whenever we realize we’re bringing back an original aspect of this home,” she shares. That philosophy has shaped the way Dove approaches the apartment, balancing the need for modern accessibility with her desire to preserve its past.

Making the space functional for Magee has required careful planning, particularly because he currently cannot use his left hand in addition to using a wheelchair. Dove quickly discovered that simply following standard accessibility guidelines wouldn’t necessarily address the specific challenges he faces in everyday life.

“I cannot stress how complicated making a kitchen accessible is!” she says. Even small decisions, such as placing a faucet close enough to the stove for Magee to fill a pot with one hand, require more thought than she initially anticipated.

Throughout the apartment, Dove is considering how fixtures, furniture and layouts can better accommodate his mobility. Their plans include flexible work surfaces, wheelchair-accessible fixtures and appliances that can be operated by cellphone, allowing Magee to complete more tasks with minimal assistance.

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The couple has now lived in the apartment for a little over a year, and Dove has already begun restoring original door hardware, updating bathroom fixtures and tackling smaller projects with help from friends. Their next major undertaking after the kitchen will be making their tiny bathroom accessible, another challenge in a building designed long before modern accessibility standards.

Although much of the work remains ahead, Dove says the couple has no regrets about choosing an apartment that requires so much attention. “We’ve now been in the apartment a little over a year and have no regrets… but also still no full kitchen. That’s changing soon!”

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