MARY’S FANCY – Touching lives in ways both big and small, St. Maarten Development Fund (SMDF), via its Senior Project, removed a major mobility obstacle for one senior. Elsa Thomas, a long-time resident of Mary’s Fancy, now has a new paved driveway making her home more accessible to emergency and transportation services.

Thomas has lived in the home for over two decades without issue, but now that she is less mobile and dialysis-dependent, she is reliant on transportation services that cannot easily reach her home. When she initially began her dialysis treatment, Thomas was being transported to the St. Maarten Medical Center (SMMC) via Ambulance. When the weather allowed for it, Ambulance personnel would carry Thomas down a steep staircase and then load her into a waiting vehicle.

When rain fell, making the staircase too slippery to traverse, fire trucks had to be called to get Ms. Thomas from her home to the road below via stretcher. On these days, Paramedics would place Thomas on a stretcher and the Fire personnel would place the stretcher into the basket of the fire truck before bringing her down to be placed into the Ambulance. As Ambulance and Fire personnel are often called to respond to emergencies, this system of transportation was found to be unsustainable. With her new driveway, which was paved in just one day by Main Rod Construction, Thomas now uses private transportation services than can easily reach her home.

Thomas, who receives dialysis three times per week, once struggled to convince transportation services to come to her home. Now, with her new driveway, she is safely transported to and from her home without worry.