Getting Meaghan Home

Hi

This is tough. This is so tough to write.

My name is Tracey Jardine, and my niece Meaghan Clark was in a motorcycle accident on November 6, 2022, near Sambro, Nova Scotia. She broke several ribs, her wrist, a collarbone and shoulder blade. Her lungs were bruised, and her liver was lacerated. She is also now permanently paralyzed from the waist down with a complete ASIA A thoracic spinal cord injury. The broken bones and internal organ damage will heal, but, short of a miracle, Meaghan will not walk again.

Meaghan loves her active life – spending time with her family and friends, going to live music shows, hiking through nature’s wonder with her dogs, laughing around the campfire, and traveling to new places and old familiar spaces. She deeply loves her daughter Saskia and her partner, Greg. As a family, they are still grieving the death of Greg’s beautiful boy Adam, who died in 2021 at age fourteen. Our goal for this campaign is to help to get Meaghan’s life re-established.

The most pressing task that lies ahead is making her home accessible. It is her dream home. Meaghan and her family love their property outside Halifax, but it’s a problematic house for someone in a wheelchair.

We hope to raise funds to redesign and renovate the property. We want to make it possible for Meaghan to travel up and down stairs, adapt the bathroom and kitchen, and make living there easier by lowering the light switches, raising the wall plugs, widening doorways, and building ramps. She will also need an emergency stair travel device should she have to quickly get out of her home in case of a fire. We also want to ensure electricity is always available for when the power goes out by installing a generator. As anyone here knows, the power definitely goes out in Nova Scotia.

It will be a challenge and an expensive one. If her home redesign costs are too high, she will have to sell her home and move. She has had her home for only a couple of years, so if she must sell, it means a financial penalty for exiting her mortgage early because banks don’t show mercy or offer any forgiveness for life’s troubles. There is also no guarantee she will be able to secure a new mortgage for another house, for people with disabilities face more than just physical obstacles.

While Meaghan has access to some benefits, it won’t be enough for the home renovations, special equipment, and medical assistance. As her family, we are already doing everything we can to help her recover and build her future. We want Meaghan to get her life back. So, we’re asking for your help.

Our goal is to create a home where she can freely move around and live a quality life – happy, independent, and hopeful. To have family dinners, watch the sun rise and set along Nova Scotia’s beautiful shores, laugh with and entertain her friends, and settle in comfortably with her rescue dogs Flynn and Stella, who miss her dearly as she spends months in the hospital and rehab.

As she slowly adapts to her new life, your support – at whatever level – will help her. We would be grateful for anything you can provide to help Meaghan regain as full a life as possible and one that is not solely defined by a wheelchair. All money raised will be dedicated exclusively to building a foundation for her future, namely a home in which she can enjoy living for years to come. With the deepest gratitude from her family, thank you for letting us share Meaghan’s story. We welcome you to join us on this journey to get Meaghan home.