Christmas wish to be home for holidays didn't come true for many Fort McMurray families
Many displaced families spending holiday season in temporary accommodations
Donated Lego is spread across a queen-size bed in a hotel room in downtown Fort McMurray, Alta. Jacob Goetz and his five children set out to build a ship, while his wife, Adrianne, nurses their four-day-old boy in the room next door.
These two adjoining hotel rooms have been a temporary home for the growing family since early November.
"I would have thought we would have been out of here by now," Jacob says.
"We have been here longer than we expected. I think longer than anyone expected."
After the Goetzes lost their home in May's wildfire, the family moved into a trailer in a temporary park set up in the city. But when the park closed at the end of October, they moved into the hotel with the help of the Red Cross.
The family of seven thought they would be here for just a few weeks. Instead, the now-family of eight has been living in the hotel for nearly two months.
Cramped quarters
The hotel rooms are where the children live, play and are home-schooled by their mother. Adrianne Goetz says she had to get creative when it came to preparing meals without even a kitchenette.
"We use an electric frying pan and a rice cooker for almost everything," she says, pointing to paper plates stacked on one of the dressers.
"We just come and make an assembly line."
The Goetzes haven't been able to settle their insurance claim, which is why they feel grateful for the help and donations they've received, including the small decorated Christmas tree sitting in the corner of one of the rooms.
There isn't a lot of space for the children to roam, but the hotel is across the parking lot from a mall. The Goetzes have become regulars at the bookstore, where they often take trips to browse the shelves.
Gift giving
They were asked if they wanted to receive a Christmas hamper full of donated gifts this year, but they declined, in part because there isn't space to store anything in the hotel rooms.
Instead, while visiting a local church, they decided to select tags from a Christmas tree that had the ages and genders of children in need of gifts this holiday season.
"Each one of the kids picked someone that they connected with," Jacob Goetz says.
"The gifts we bought were for someone else and they all knew that. It was really neat."
We have been here longer than we expected. I think longer than anyone expected.- Jacob Goetz
While the family is getting ready to spend the holidays in extremely close quarters, hundreds of other families in Fort McMurray are also out of their homes. Most are staying in rental accommodations or with relatives.
But there are a lucky few, like Kourtney Parent, who've been able to settle into new houses back in their old neighbourhoods.
A stressful time
"It's been stressful over the last several months. It will be nice to have our own space and our own privacy again," says Parent, standing in front of her new home in the Beacon HIll neighbourhood.
Her house was pre-built outside of Fort McMurray and trucked onto her lot in November. Two of her neighbours also have pre-fabricated homes, but most of the properties on her block still sit empty and covered in snow. A few crews are framing houses, but most of the construction won't begin until spring.
"We are all ready for Christmas," says Parent, while busy unpacking boxes spread out across her kitchen floor, including one containing a turkey roasting pan.
She says the past seven months have been full of upheaval for her two young daughters. Not only did they lose their home, but their school was located in Abasand, another neighbourhood devastated by the fire. It hasn't reopened yet, so the girls attend a different school.
She says the one benefit is that in their old home, her daughters had to share a room. In this house, they will each get their own.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
