A Moncton man and his son with special needs who were left homeless after a fire last Tuesday evening have a new home thanks to a Moncton woman who donated her apartment and furnishings to the family.
“I needed somebody to take over my apartment and they happened to need a home so it worked out perfectly,” said Louisa O’Brien, who lived in the apartment with her 10-year-old daughter Jayden.
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Big Hearts Small City had helped O’Brien and her daughter move into and furnish the apartment when they were struggling earlier this spring.
O’Brien said she wanted to pay it forward to another family in need before she moved back to her home province in British Columbia.
“It was like fate happened to put these two people together and make a Christmas miracle happen,” said Jason Surette from Big Hearts Small City.
On Nov. 29 a fierce fire broke out at James and Thomas Layton’s basement apartment at their Cassidy Street home in Moncton.
The father and son lost almost everything they owned and with no money for a damage deposit for a new apartment, the two found themselves facing homelessness.
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“I never realized what it was like to have everything ripped from underneath you,” said Layton.
He said he was also concerned for his 19-year-old son who is autistic.
“Thomas needs the right environment,” said Layton. “I was just freaking out cause not only do I have to find a place but I had a safe place for him. I had a house.”
“We didn’t have any money to buy new stuff, nothing, so we needed anything we could get at that point,” said Thomas.
But on Friday, the father and son connected with O’Brien and she donated her apartment and all of the furnishing as long as the boys could keep up the rent. She left on a bus bound for B.C. shortly afterward.
“There were dishes in the cupboard and food in the fridge, it was like life just went on as normal again. That doesn’t happen after a fire,” Layton said.
“It does feel really, really good. It’s a blessing,” said Thomas, who now has his own room. He even received a new bicycle that was left behind to replace the one he lost in the fire.
Layton said it was like Christmas came early.
“I already had it. I don’t need a tree, I don’t need nothing.”
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