A caregiver is accused of taking advantage of an assisted living facility resident when she moved into the woman’s residence, became her power of attorney, and took her NIB pension and survivor’s benefit, the woman’s granddaughter Phillippa Carey said.
But Mervie Knowles, owner of Home Away from Home Shelter, is defending herself, stating that Ingrid Carey, who was placed in her senior care facility, pleaded with her to take possession of the property.
“She kept on pressuring me to take the home. She said, ‘Ms Knowles if you don’t take the home, I’m going to give it to somebody else,'” Knowles told ZNS Northern Service, to justify her reasons for living in the woman’s home.
But Carey’s granddaughter, Phillippa Carey is crying foul. She said her grandmother, whose husband died last year October, shows signs of dementia and is not mentally sound to sign over documents.
When Philippa returned to Grand Bahama from another island where she was employed, she discovered Knowles living in the home while the grandmother remained in the living facility.
She questioned Knowles about the circumstance. “She said, ‘I don’t have any answers for you because whatever we’re doing is what your mother requested.'”
“It doesn’t make sense to me.
“I have to rent an Air BnB, stay with friends or stay in a hotel just so that I can be home and it’s not fair to me because that’s the only place I lived my whole life.
“A stranger came in and just took everything away,” Philippa lamented.
“I’ve been stripped of everything…Only God kept me sane in the midst of it all. Some days I wake up and feel like I’m in a dream because everything that’s happened seems fresh out of a movie.”
Phillippa is seeking justice and has since hired a lawyer while friends plan a protest outside the assisted living facility.
In Featured image: Mervie Knowles (left) and Phillipa Carey (right)