“I am happy to be home, I enjoy going out for walks, visiting my brother and family and catching up on all the news online in the local library. Most importantly I can now relax knowing that I have a secure affordable place to live”.
Carol, Safe Home Ireland returnee
Aged sixty eight, Carol left the North West of Ireland for the US. Carol worked in Ireland for many years, she married and had one daughter, Pauline. Sadly, however, due to her husband’s alcohol addiction, the marriage broke down.
In the late 1980s Carol’s sister invited her and Pauline to join her in the USA, where she had been living for many years. While Carol wanted to remain at home she felt that this was the only way of giving her daughter a better life. She made the move, enrolled Pauline in school and found work.
Over the years, Carol visited her family back home in Ireland as often as she could afford to but always dreamed of coming home for good. When she retired from work Carol found that it was more difficult to make ends meet with her small Irish pension and even though she has worked in the US she had not accumulated enough stamps for a full social security pension.
When Pauline graduated from university and was settled with her own family and a successful career, this prompted Carol to contact her local Irish centre in New York who referred her to Safe Home. We then assisted Carol in completing the relevant paperwork to support her return home.
Fortunately, Carol did not have to wait too long before she was offered a secure tenancy in a social housing project, just fifteen miles from her brother’s home! On her return, a Safe Home Outreach Officer visited Carol in her new home to assist with applying for health care, transferring her pension and applying for relevant benefits and entitlements. One year on Carol is pleased that she made the decision to come back to live in her native area.