Elder unhappy about old house but stall wants to return home

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Elder Alex Crier said his Saddle Lake home has "no bathroom or running water." The Elder angrily shouted, "I call it an old chicken coop-a dump!"

Saddle Lake Reserve housing manager Oliver Brertton says that "it's up to the individual to keep the houses in shape."

Crier, who was born in 1919 on the Saddle Lake Reserve, says, "I stay 10 years in that house. I have to get out of there." He reluctantly admitted, "I'm kind of weak, getting' older every day and I can't stay there no more."

Contacted by Windspeaker Brertton, indicated that he remembered Crier and the house he received from the Saddle Lake Band. The housing manager said "Alex was given an old house because he lived off the reserve for a long time. The house was in pretty rough shape."

But, Brertton says, Crier's home is in better condition than many other homes on the reserve. "There's only so much money allowed for housing on the reserve," said Brertton.

Crier is staying at the Kehewin Elders' Lodge now. "They saved my neck," he says.

The lodge was built in the fall of 1985, and employs two community health workers who "primary responsibilities are to look after the personal needs of the Elders," according to the lodge director, Margette Laurena Gadwa.

The director explained "we also have a group called the Candy Stripers who go to the Elders' rooms and find out their needs once a week."

Gadwa says the 11 Elders staying at the facility are served traditional meals that they are accustomed to such as wild meat and bannock.

"We had 15 Elders here before Christmas," Gadwa conceded, "But they get lonely and leave."

Alex Crier says he would like to return to Saddle Lake. He says "I have no complaints here at the Kehewin Reserve, but I miss my home. I don't know if I can go home or not."

Brertton says a new senior citizen' complex has been built at Saddle Lake, and Crier should contact the reserve band office because there is room in the new complex for him.