Mission NOT Impossible!

I've been waging a war for my mother AGAIN, over the last week.
I can write about it now because we are no longer in the middle of combat. lol
The white flag has been waved...by the other party.


In actual fact, the battle started a long time ago...Above Some Heads For Mom.......it's just been a slow one....till last week. As of last week, enough was enough.
What changed?
Well, my mother had a leak in her kitchen several weeks ago that was no fault of her own. This stuff happens in buildings sometimes, especially old ones. She reported the leak over a weekend a few weeks back, they brought her a mop......which left several days for the leak to do it's damage. And that, it did. Once the building repaired the problem, they didn't check with tenants affected to see if there was damage that needed to be repaired. Soooo....Mom ended up with a very serious issue....BLACK MOLD. Looked and smelled like it to me!

After going above some heads previously, my mother was promised further action to not just repair her kitchen cupboards, but to completely replace and give her a new kitchen. It was supposed to have been done by the end of the year. Called them in January because clearly nothing was done. They advised me that funding had been approved and that the work just needed to be scheduled. I was asked to wait patiently for 3 more months. Well here we are in month 4 with no word on her new kitchen. At least that is until shit hit the fan mold hit the cupboards! lol 

With my camera I went. I wasn't going to ask nicely anymore. I contacted the office last Monday, and was told I would get a call back for which I am still waiting for a week later. By Tuesday evening, I started my letter writing campaign! Oh, and put in a call to 3-1-1 again. By Wednesday I was on the phone with someone from the Municipal Licensing and Standards Committee. They agreed to pay a visit to inspect my mother's apartment..and had a camera too. By Thursday I was on the phone with a Public Health Inspector. She made a visit to do her own inspection on Friday, after getting the photos taken by the guy from Licensing and Standards via email. Hey...I have pictures too? I guess nobody wanted to see mine! lol I even took video. All (pictures and video), I included when I sent my letter off on Tuesday. So, Friday I was at Mom's apartment meeting with the Public Health Inspector and a few others during my lunch break. She shook her head as she took her photos and vowed to make several calls to get some action for my mother. She was going to ORDER resolution! Oh, and THAT she did. It helped that she was the same inspector that did the visit last year. lol By Friday afternoon, I had a call from somebody who was able to do something (a higher manager in housing)....with a plan and a meeting scheduled. Probably only because he was ORDERED. haha

                                     

Here we are....Monday, bright and early before work and I was at Mom's house to meet with some higher level Housing managers than what I had originally been dealing with. Oh...and they came with people from an Environmental Clean Up Company, Coast to Coast Environmental. Yeah...those guys knew my Mom's apartment was bad. Not sure who these housing people were trying to fool. They weren't fooling me! Several of the men this morning pulled out their own camera's and explained what they would need to do to remediate the mold issue. As they confirmed, it needed more work than the "mold spray" the building wanting to use. Smh.  My fight....if you have to remove the old cupboards in order to remediate the mold, then why put the old cupboards back up when her apartment has already been approved for new cupboards since last year? The two Housing managers duked it out, in a matter of speaking. Luckily, the one on our side won. "Let's install the new cabinetry!" Oh man, music to my ears!! I won!

So....as I left the apartment to get to work with a big smile, the workers started their remediation of the mold. Immediately! Hazmat suits and all. Yet....a lady in the office of my mothers building had the nerve to comment that my mother's house was "Liveable!" The nerve! I'm sure she wouldn't want her parent in there.

While this is a great news story for my mother...it's a sad news story because we have to realize that there are so many other people out there that don't even have advocates. I can't help but wonder about those seniors who have children that don't seem to give a damn. Those with no children. Others that are mentally ill and are unmanageable by their families. There are so many different situations in which it seems that people completely take advantage of others and show that they really just don't care. It's all about the money. Companies want to save a buck at the expense of the health and safety of others. Smh. I'm just happy that I've always done my best to be there for my mom, even when she wasn't well. Those were horrible days, but I got through it....and it just makes the fights of today that much more worth it. Never give up!

God is good all the time, and all the time God is good.

Mission NOT Impossible. Nothing is impossible for God!

Oh....and my ladies prayer group and I prayed about this meeting on Saturday, among other things. So, i'm not surprised that God again heard and answered prayers.

Now....to follow up on their work and the final completion of her new kitchen that should take a few weeks. They even offered her the option to move into a brand new apartment. Imagine that! Oh...but you know how seniors are comfortable with their surroundings. Mom wasn't having that. So...fixing up her apartment it is!