‘Stress, tears’ as families help residents forced from London seniors home

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For Londoner Heather Noddle, the past few days have been ones filled with uncertainty, tears and gratitude, too.  

Noddle is the daughter of one of the dozens of seniors who were still in limbo Thursday, looking for a new place to live after a downtown retirement home flooded over the weekend.

Jim McGillivray, Noddle’s 94-year-old father, moved into the home two years ago.

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“I’m much calmer now, and the staff have been incredible, I can’t thank them enough, but there’s been a lot of stress and tears over the past few days,” Noodle said Thursday from the lobby of the Best Western Hotel on Colonel Talbot Road where her father is staying.  

“He’s better today, but my dad was stressed, agitated and confused over this whole ordeal.” 

Maple View Terrace Retirement Home on Horton Street, just east of Wellington Road, was evacuated Sunday evening following a “sprinkler pipe failure on the top floor” of the building, management of the home said in a statement to The Free Press about the incident affecting 74 residents.  

“We are relieved to confirm that no injuries occurred among residents or team members,” Oxford Living said.   

About a third of the seniors have found new accommodations, while the rest are still looking for a new place to live because repair work on the damaged building, already underway, is expected to take months.  

In her case, Noddle said she and her family are still looking at some options for her dad, who’s been on a waitlist for a long-term care bed for close to five years now.  

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“We’re just trying to find him a bed somewhere,” she said.   

On Thursday, relatives of the home’s residents could be seen coming in and out of the Horton Street building, carrying the belongings of their loved ones that weren’t damaged in the flooding.  

Among them was Londoner Lisa O’Brien, who said she was forced to find a home for her 84-year-old mom in Ingersoll, about 40 minutes from London.  

“There was nothing left in her price range,” she said.   

“That’s why we’re coming to grab whatever we can because there’s no way we can get all her stuff for her new home.”  

O’Brien said she was thankful for the quick response from the London fire department and staff at the home. But the flooding has affected her mother, she said.  

“She’s very agitated because this was her home,” O’Brien said. “She’s now at a strange hotel, so she’s having some difficulty.”  

Though she feels lucky to have found a bed for her mother so quickly, O’Brien said it will take some time for her mom to get used to her new home.  

“I’m kind of sad because I’m her main caregiver, her support system,” she said. “So it’s difficult for me because I work full time, and I have to look after her, and now I’ll have to go to Ingersoll because this is probably going to be at least six months.”  

jjuha@postmedia.com 

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