Developing: Landlord refuses to rent to Nanna…
Hyannis – Just over two months ago “Nanna” Edwards was burnt out of her home.
[Click here to see original story.]
If it wasn’t for her grandson coming to her rescue, she likely wouldn’t be here today.
According to Nanna, one of her grandchildren was next door, when he just happened to notice the fire. She was alone sleeping and was awakened by, “Nanna, the house is on fire! You got to get out of here.”
Nanna was taken to Cape Cod Hospital for smoke inhalation. This all happened this past August 18, 2013. Her life has not been the same ever since.
“It’s a lot of stress,” says Nanna. “I’m 89-years-old and I don’t need this.”
“Nanna” Edwards has 8 children, about 60 grandchildren, as well as a bunch of great-grandchildren.
Everybody loves Nanna back in her neighborhood at 50 Fresh Holes Road. She has a big heart and has helped out many others over the years with warm meals and love. Which is why everybody in that part of Hyannis, related or not, refers to Mrs. Edwards as “Nanna.”
Fresh Holes Road is a poverty stricken area with numerous young families. Kids grow up learning the tough lessons of the streets. In a city like Hyannis where there are minimal entry level job opportunities that provide a liveable wage, it’s difficult to maintain hope.
Nanna was a steady source of hope… and now the neighborhood is even poorer without her.
Fresh Holes wasn’t always a high crime area. But longtime residents have observed a drastic change in recent years due to the influx of troubled families from the other side of the canal… and sometimes even from the other side of the U.S. Border… One of Nanna’s daughters pointed out people started settling their differences with bullets when families started leaving their home states “down South.” Whether displaced by Katrina or for illegal opportunities, bad off-Cape influences wound up on HyTown’s streets playing by a much more lethal set of rules. What once was settled with fists, now is settled with handguns and knives…
… or fire.
Nanna is the opposite of handguns, knives, and intentionally set fires. She’s a local treasure who emanates simple warmth, love, and kindness.
If I had an apartment I would rent to her in heartbeat. Which is why I was confused as to why she was denied a recent rental opportunity due to her being the victim of arson.
I met with Nanna Edwards today and despite the unfortunate circumstances, I felt honored to have been so graciously welcomed into her daughter’s home.
Nanna is one of the most adorable women I have ever met. Her deep soulful eyes immediately put you at ease… one could almost see the years she has witnessed in those eyes; her loved ones, triumphs and tragedies are all there in those dark brown eyes.
It’s hard to imagine anyone would ever want to harm Nanna… and there’s little doubt that the person(s) responsible for burning her home would have thought twice had he ever had the opportunity to sit and talk to her face to face.
Since the fire, Nanna has been homeless and staying with family. She doesn’t have the space she needs and was looking forward to finding a new place.
She was working with a local realtor, had filled out paperwork, and basically had all her ducks in row. She found a place she liked just over the town line on Theodore Roosevelt Road in Yarmouth. Things were moving forward for potentially moving in as soon as November 1st, when tragedy struck a second time.
The duplex at her previous 50 Fresh Holes address was suspiciously set on fire a second time. [Click here for more on that story]
There are now two suspicious fires at the same address currently under investigation and the owner of the Theodore Roosevelt Road residence has caught wind of it.
The bottom line is that the realtor informed Mrs. Edwards that the owner no longer wanted to rent to her.
Nanna and her daughters also felt the realtor had given up on them and closed their file.
I took a drive to D&B Realty on Route 28 in Yarmouth hoping to hear the realtor’s side of the story.
My first conversation with Dick Brown, the D&B real estate agent handling Nanna’s search did not go smoothly. In fact, when I asked for his side of the story he hung up on me…
… so opened my truck door, stepped down, and decided to pay him a visit inside his office.
The office door was open, but I knocked anyways and waited. Dick Brown had his back towards the entryway and impatiently said “come in.” I don’t think he was expecting me.
I introduced myself and why I had come. I told him I wanted his side of the story and he apologized for hanging up on me, saying he was busy with someone else when I had called.
We both moved past that and I surprisingly found Mr. Brown very pleasant and cooperative after all.
Mr. Brown is a 73-year-old man with a cluttered desk. He’s originally from Boston and started D&B Realty back in 1973 during the days of gas rationing. He reminisced about long gas lines all the way down Route 28 in front of his office. He had a stapler that appeared older than most of my friends and he wasn’t the heartless ogre I originally expected.
In short, Mr. Brown denied he had stopped trying to find a place for Nanna. He said he actually enjoyed meeting Mrs. Edwards and that he liked her, having spent half an hour talking to her.
He professed the landlord called him very worried about the new tenant. He told me the landlord became scared and upset when he learned about the fires at Nanna’s previous address.
There seemed to be some concern that Nanna’s big family would come to visit her and bring problems with them.
I reasoned that families who care about one another visit, especially ones that love their Nanna, and that no one can ever predict what would happen in any large family, no matter how big or small. That’s why people buy insurance.
He nodded, but insisted that owners don’t want to go through that.
We talked more about families and the fact that his own mother lived to be 95. I tried to emphasize that it appears unlikely Nanna was the actual target of the fires.
Mr. Brown seemed open to the idea of talking to the landlord one more time, but first he gave me some questions of his own to investigate.
I will be following up on Mr. Brown’s questions and hopefully reporting back with answers that will help the landlord set aside his current fears.
In the meantime, Mr. Brown insists he has not deserted Nanna.
If anyone has other solutions for Mrs. Edwards, please feel free to email me at rjbastille@yahoo.com .
Let’s hope everything works out for Nanna.
This story is not over yet, so please stay tuned.
[To be continued…]
10/24/2013
Robert Bastille, HyannisNews.com
P.S. – Tonight’s HyTown Vignette is brought to you by our roots, humble beginnings, hopes, and dreams… [Press play]
