A Nova Scotia senior and his family say they have received an overwhelming number of responses to a Kijiji ad they placed to find the 75-year-old a home care assistant.
Terron Dodd, who has MS and uses a wheelchair, is looking for someone to help him around the house.
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In exchange, he’s offering a rural Cape Breton lifestyle.
In addition to the $30,000 to $35,000 a year salary, Dodd is providing the right candidate and their family the second floor of his log home that sits on a 100-acre property in Whycocomagh.
“This job isn’t for everyone. Besides having the right skills you’ll need a certain philosophy on life to be able to thrive here,” the ad reads.
The job description includes being able to drive, having skills in gardening, a desire to care for chickens, and an ability to cook, clean and be handy around the house.
Dodd’s daughter, Miranda, currently lives with him but says she needs help.
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“I’m in one of those situations where it’s time to juggle all of the requirements of my life and still assist my father,” she said.
“I work away from the home … the commute time plus the time being away, it’s a strain on me but I can’t live somewhere else because it’s not safe to leave him alone all the time.”
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Miranda Dodd says since the ad was posted last week, the family has received hundreds of emails from as far away as B.C. and the United States.
“We did not expect such an immediate and high level of interest,” she said.
Some of the emails are notes of encouragement from families in similar situations, some offer advice on how to hire the right person, while others are looking for more information on the job.
Miranda Dodd estimates 100 of the responses are from candidates who are seriously considering the position.
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“Clearly the amount of interest it’s generated, both in the number of people who thought it was worth looking at and the number of people who thought it was worth investigating further, shows there’s a demand for something like this — on the employee end and potential demand on the employer end,” she said.
“Unfortunately, a lot of people have had to go away for work and their parents have stayed here and are getting too old to run their farm or whatever their business was before.”
She says the family will be slowly weeding through the emails and replying to a shortlist of candidates to ask for more information.
She’s hopeful whoever they hire will help give her father the ability to live at home safely, and as the ad states, be able to offer “rural living in a dream setting” to the right candidate.
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