CYNTHIA STRAWSON
It reinforced for me that I had a lot to share and it didn’t feel like a burden at all.
Cynthia Strawson is an Edmonton homeowner who lived in the basement of her west-end home for six weeks, leaving the main floor to three evacuees from Fort McMurray: Alie Warnes, her husband Cam Wilson and their daughter, Isabel, who was seven at the time. On making the decision to open
her home: “I’d been watching Facebook and wondering what I could possibly do to help. I didn’t have money to give, but I looked at my bungalow and I thought, ‘I’ve got space.’ Friends posted about a family with a child who wanted to be in the west end and to finish out the school year. They were literally driving up and down the streets looking for places that might be for rent.” On worrying about strangers in your house: “That was a concern, and I wanted to meet them, and they wanted to meet me. But they were incredible people. Alie has multiple degrees and runs a crisis support centre in Fort McMurray and Cam has an MBA and immediately I felt comfortable with them.
“I tapped my social community and had help moving out of my main floor and into the basement. I gave them the punch code number for the door and that was that.
They treated my home like it was their home. They played with the cat and I read stories with Izzy. We didn’t talk about rent at all but in the end, they were able to apply to the Red Cross for a rent supplement and did give me just under $1,500, which paid for some Ikea cabinets for when I moved downstairs.”
On what was learned: “It reinforced for me that I had a lot to share and it didn’t feel like a burden at all. I felt like I got so much more than I gave, and I learned a lot about Fort McMurray and that was amazing. I learned through Alie about what trauma does to people, and just how resilient people are. And I’ve learned people are so welcoming, like the people in my community here in Edmonton. My mom and her friends ended up making a quilt for Izzy.”