A New Home For Sloan
Donation protected
Dear friends,
As you can see, and have heard on the news, floods are around us everywhere and have hit our home hard. We debated whether or not this route was for us and have decided - after some new depressing developments - that we do need help. And if you can, we need your help.
We moved to this beautiful spot near the river a couple of years ago and we have loved it. It has been our home and our daughter Sloan’s world. We knew going in that there was some risk, but we saw the much bigger homes being built around us, and we felt a false sense of security and belief. We believed that the dams were just mis-managed during the 2017 flood - and that there hadn’t been any flooding for 40 some years before then - and that somehow climate change wasn’t going to affect this. We were wrong. We left about ten days ago after being told sand bagging would not save our house in our location and that we needed to pack a bag and get out. What we thought was going to happen happened, and more. So much more. The polluted, sewage filled water is fully in our home. We have been told it will rise past counter height where we put many things to be “saved”, and that the water will remain in and around our house for possibly three weeks. Game over. This is beyond our worse nightmare and by far much more water then we or anyone predicted. We are losing many large items we owned - washer, dryer, fridge, stove and many small items - coffee press (ha!), books, rugs, toys, etc. We moved many things upstairs, but our new fear is that things such as mattresses will smell like rotting fish heads after all that time. We have insurance. They are not covering us. Because of things like 'flood exclusions', they will not be covering anything or anyone in our area - and we all hope to eventually get money from the government, but we have no certainty or timeline on that.
So here we are. We are looking for a place to rent. We need to start from scratch. We are at our limit. It’s been sad, depressing, frustrating, stressful and somewhat heartbreaking. A house is just a house, unless you are a two-year-old; then it’s your world. Our sweet Sloan is in the mix of all of this. The instinct for us, as parents, is to hustle harder at this moment, work more, etc. But more stress, and more time away from her is not what Sloan needs. She needs us to re-build, accept the loss, look ahead, and ask for help.
We love you already. If you can help, you can. If you can’t, you can’t. The love is the same and we are grateful for all of it.
Thank you.
Jillian, Matty, Sloan and Olive
As you can see, and have heard on the news, floods are around us everywhere and have hit our home hard. We debated whether or not this route was for us and have decided - after some new depressing developments - that we do need help. And if you can, we need your help.
We moved to this beautiful spot near the river a couple of years ago and we have loved it. It has been our home and our daughter Sloan’s world. We knew going in that there was some risk, but we saw the much bigger homes being built around us, and we felt a false sense of security and belief. We believed that the dams were just mis-managed during the 2017 flood - and that there hadn’t been any flooding for 40 some years before then - and that somehow climate change wasn’t going to affect this. We were wrong. We left about ten days ago after being told sand bagging would not save our house in our location and that we needed to pack a bag and get out. What we thought was going to happen happened, and more. So much more. The polluted, sewage filled water is fully in our home. We have been told it will rise past counter height where we put many things to be “saved”, and that the water will remain in and around our house for possibly three weeks. Game over. This is beyond our worse nightmare and by far much more water then we or anyone predicted. We are losing many large items we owned - washer, dryer, fridge, stove and many small items - coffee press (ha!), books, rugs, toys, etc. We moved many things upstairs, but our new fear is that things such as mattresses will smell like rotting fish heads after all that time. We have insurance. They are not covering us. Because of things like 'flood exclusions', they will not be covering anything or anyone in our area - and we all hope to eventually get money from the government, but we have no certainty or timeline on that.
So here we are. We are looking for a place to rent. We need to start from scratch. We are at our limit. It’s been sad, depressing, frustrating, stressful and somewhat heartbreaking. A house is just a house, unless you are a two-year-old; then it’s your world. Our sweet Sloan is in the mix of all of this. The instinct for us, as parents, is to hustle harder at this moment, work more, etc. But more stress, and more time away from her is not what Sloan needs. She needs us to re-build, accept the loss, look ahead, and ask for help.
We love you already. If you can help, you can. If you can’t, you can’t. The love is the same and we are grateful for all of it.
Thank you.
Jillian, Matty, Sloan and Olive
Fundraising team (1)
Matty McKechnie
Organizer
Gatineau, QC
Jillian Menard
Team member