Helen Gray, 72, wonders what she would have done without the Agency on Aging’s Senior Mobile Home Repair Program.

She was active and working as a hair dresser when she found her health and vigor steadily fading until the day she ended up in Kalispell Regional Medical Center, diagnosed with Wegener’s, a debilitating autoimmune disease.

After recuperating for weeks at Brendan House, she returned to her mobile home.

“Then I had a stroke and a heart attack,” she said.

Her escalating health problems and limited income kept her from performing maintenance. As her mobility decreased, she couldn’t safely get into the tub in her cramped bathroom.

“I had to do sponge baths,” she said.

She also couldn’t safely use the steps to her front door. Making matters worse, a contractor who didn’t follow orders left her with a deck with boards ripped up and unpainted. 

Gray was at her wits’ end when she found out about the Senior Mobile Home Repair Program administered by volunteer director Jim Atkinson. The program serves Flathead County residents 60 and over who own their mobile homes but can’t do the repairs themselves or afford to hire the work done. 

Responding to Gray’s call for help, Atkinson came over and took stock of her problems to present to his advisory board. In a short time, she had a ramp under construction and her deck was repaired.

“Jim said he was trying to get me set with the bathtub,” she said. “And he didn’t give up.”

With a small budget of about $30,000 a year for the whole program, a major project like tearing out the tub and installing a handicapped-accessible shower wasn’t possible. That’s when the advisory board got creative and found a sliding chair on the Internet for around $300. 

Within a few minutes, the chair was securely clamped into place. It was so easy to operate that Gray said she uses it without help from her caregiver Jennifer Hull.

“Now I can shower and shampoo my hair,” she said. “It’s wonderful. I praise God for these people who helped me from the Agency on Aging.”

 Another client, Agustina Fragoso, 70, had a health problem cured by the work performed by the Senior Mobile Home Repair Program. 

Fragoso tries to keep up her ’70s-era mobile home in spite of major back problems, but she wasn’t able to fix a roof leak last spring that caused her ceiling and kitchen cabinets to start sagging by autumn. After her request for help was denied by another agency, she was referred to Atkinson for help with her soggy, sagging ceiling and cabinets.

“I told him, ‘I don’t want to die like a frog in the woods,’” she said with a laugh.

Atkinson recalled that a board stuck under the cabinet was all that held the cabinet up. Within a short time, he obtained a bid and Great Bear Builders started tearing out the cabinets and ceiling, revealing the cause of Fragoso’s chronic respiratory problems. 

“We found black mold,” he said. “I think we saved this lady’s health and home.”

 Helping seniors like these energizes Atkinson as he begins his annual searches for donations from the public, community and private foundations and businesses to repair mobile homes excluded from low income federal housing assistance programs.

It’s a dilemma, since some of the lowest income seniors live in aging mobile homes with many health and safety hazards. As soon as the snow falls, the calls come in for help with furnaces, frozen water heaters and plumbing or snow blowing under the door.

Atkinson’s pitch for money has built-in budget appeal, since every dollar raised goes directly to services to people such as Gray and Fragoso. Flathead County donates the overhead such as printing costs and bill paying through the Agency on Aging, while he contributes the administration.

His payback comes from the older people the program serves.

“These folks really appreciate it. They can’t do the work themselves, and they don’t know which way to go,” he said.

“It makes the whole community feel good when you make these people safe and warm. I’d be just as excited as heck to run the program for another year.” 

Anyone interested in contributing to the program or who needs more information or assistance should call the Agency on Aging at 758-5730.

 Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.