A community in the Outaouais is building a new house free of charge for a grandfather who wanted to provide a better living environment for his granddaughter.
“My granddaughter is the apple of my eye. I don’t have a woman in my life, I just have her and my old dog,” says Roger Sioui.
The 65-year-old has been raising his granddaughter since she was six months old. They lived until recently in a mobile home in Bowman, a village located one hour from Gatineau.
But this caravan has become far too small for life as a couple. The little girl, who is now six years old, having moved into the only bedroom, her grandfather therefore had to sleep in the living room.
Mr. Sioui, who could only rely on his disability pension to survive, tried as best he could to raise money to provide a safe and suitable home for his granddaughter by reselling things found in the garbage .
“He picked up a very small cushion to have the right house, but with the cost of living today, it’s not enough yet”, says Julie Clément, the mother of a friend of the young girl. nicknamed “Frog”.
Good idea
In June, M.me Clément had the idea of doing everything so that the family could have a new home quickly.
With her friend Véronique Beaudoin, she set to work: fundraising, seeking donations of materials and labour, etc.
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Véronique Beaudoin and Julie Clément.
“They said to me: You love your granddaughter and your granddaughter loves you. You take good care of her, she’s well brought up, we’ll arrange for you to have a new home. They kept their promise and work very hard,” says Mr. Sioui.
Since then, the old mobile home has been demolished and the framework for the new home was erected last week.
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The old mobile home was recently demolished.
People from all over Quebec got together: one contractor traveled more than four hours from Maniwaki to pour the concrete.
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It will be replaced by a new one, currently under construction.
The two “angels descended from heaven”, as Roger Sioui calls them, managed to obtain all kinds of materials for the house, from roofing to paint, for free.
“There is no more house. I made him a promise: whether we have the funds or not, we have to find a way, ”says Julie Clément.
A GoFundMe campaign has been set up and a couple recently donated $13,000 so they can finish the house before winter.
“There are so many people who are generous. I find it hard to believe that this is happening to me, ”says Roger Sioui, who temporarily installed his trailer with a neighbour.
Julie Clément hopes Mr. Sioui and his granddaughter can enjoy the holidays together in their new home.
“We would like there to be a Christmas tree in the living room. They never could before, because it was too small,” she says.