CIARAN Cranfield is a second generation Irishman who has had more than his fair share of troubles, but today he finds himself in a desperate situation.
Over the past years, the 47-year-old, who is based in the small town of Daventry, near Northamptonshire, has lost his job, his home and had his Irish mum Philomena taken away from him.
Mr Cranfield is currently homeless, couch surfing and sleeping in his car, with his two dogs, since being evicted from his family home.
“Mum was diagnosed with dementia six years ago,” Cranfield tells The Irish Post.
Now at 85 years of age, Ciaran says her short-term memory is deteriorating quickly, but she still knows her son, who had been caring for her full time.
Before things got really bad for Ciaran and his mother, he was working full time for BT and the pair were living together, both paying the joint mortgage on the home his mum has lived in for over 40 years.
Philomena and her husband, who passed away in 1989Phyllis’s story will sound familiar to many Irish men and women in Britain. She was born in Dundalk and moved to England in 1968. She was pregnant out of wedlock at the time but wanted to keep her only son Ciaran. She settled in England, married her husband, and raised her two children – Ciaran and his younger sister Dara who lives in Perth, Australia with her two children. Ciaran’s stepfather (pictured above) died when he was 19, so he is the only family member in England left to the care for his mum.
Phyllis Cranfield with her grandchildren, left, and in care, left (Pictures: Ciaran Cranfield)Phyllis suffered a stroke in 2000 and was diagnosed with dementia/Alzheimer’s disease in 2010 (Picture: Ciaran Cranfield)
“Last year on the February 4, my mum’s birthday, I was laid off work due to a contract ending, I tried to find work even setting up by myself, but could not keep up with the mortgage repayments and the arrears,” Ciaran explains.
Since then he says his own depression and anxiety has become “pretty bad’.
When he struggled to make ends meet, the mortgage provider took him to court. After a court hearing on October 30, 2015, Mr. Cranfield was given until January 15, 2016 to pay the arrears of £12,000 if he wanted to keep the house.
A last minute reprieve seemed possible when a friend who lives locally lent him the money he needed. “We appealed to the court and had a hearing at 10am on the day...but the judge turned it down and the eviction went ahead.”
“I’ve been really depressed because of mum, caring for her, it’s really hard and then knowing you are going to lose your house," he says.
Now his mum Phyllis is in a care home in near Silverstone, 12 miles away from her son, who makes the trip to see her twice a day. Ciaran says:
She’s crying all the time, she just wants to go home, but I can’t tell her mum you don’t have a home to go to,”
As for his own living situation, Daventry council offered him emergency accommodation but because he has two dogs to look after they could not house them. “The dogs are the only thing that are keeping me going,” he adds.
“I want mum back with me” he concludes.
“I know dementia is a one-way street, but she’s still coherent, she still knows who I am. Her short term memory is gone, but her long term isn’t – it's just so sad that she’s in there and I cant do anything, my hands are tied. I feel I’ve let my Mum down but I also think the mortgage co and the courts could and should have shown some compassion.”
