FRANKIE MAE COLE
Stuart
Grandmother with Alzheimer’s joins family of nine in storm-wrecked Stuart home
On Southeast Colee, off Stuart’s Railway Avenue, a family is in crisis.
The reasons are too many for one sentence to contain. But walk in the door, and they become abundantly clear.
First, there’s the household: Katrina and Richard Wright. Daughter, Erika, and her three kids, 15-year-old Shannequa, 12-year-old Kaylean and 9-year-old Kenrick. Next, 19-year-old granddaughter Bianca and her 3-year-old son, Jaquann. Then 17-year-old grandson R.J., and finally, Richard’s mother, 80-year-old Frances “Frankie” Cole, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease.
Then there’s the house itself. The place these 10 busy people call home is, quite simply, a wreck.
And it has been in its gasp-inducing state of disrepair since 2004, when Hurricane Frances tore off the roof, rotted and ruined the ceilings and carpets, zapped the central air, the washer and the dryer — and basically killed off any sense of hope and orderliness this shell-shocked family might have clung to.
There’s too much to repair, and too little time and money to do it.
Katrina is a customer service rep at a bank. Her husband of 35 years (who had a mild heart attack a few years back) owns Wright & Wright lawn service. Erika works at a doctor’s office. Meanwhile, clothing for 10 people is piled everywhere, awaiting the next trip to the laundromat. The living room floor is a concrete slab. From almost every ceiling, pink insulation hangs through huge, gaping holes.
Black plastic covers the bathroom walls. Broken windows remain boarded up. It’s dark in here, and stifling. The kitchen, with its water-damaged cabinets hanging off the walls, looks like a war zone.
Frankie is deaf and communicates by sign language. She recently returned from Martin Memorial Medical Center (she’d had a stroke and hurt her knee), and young R.J. had to again give up his room (he sleeps in the living room). A fourth bedroom was added, but it’s just a cinder block shell. Like so many projects here, it’s unfinished.
Asked whether she had a Christmas wish this year, Katrina answered with a tired smile, “I never wish.”
The Wright-Cole family was nominated for Season to Share by Alzheimer’s Community Care, where Darlene Woltman is Frankie’s caseworker. When Frankie’s husband died six months ago, Richard brought his mother home, and for a while, he was taking her to work with him because she couldn’t be left alone.
Now Frankie happily attends Alzheimer’s day care, but “Richard is simply overwhelmed,” Woltman says, adding: “People who think we have all bounced back from the hurricanes need to visit Stuart.” And make a stop on Southeast Colee Avenue.
The Wright family’s wishes
What they asked for: A washer and dryer; new ceilings, windows and screens, a new air-conditioning unit, kitchen cabinets and carpets; plus Frankie’s bathroom needed to be made handicap-accessible.
What they received: Workers at Alzheimer’s Community Care purchased a washer and dryer, and it’s now installed at the Wrights’ home.
What they said: “My grandparents are in a good mood,” said R.J. Fyne, Richard and Katrina’s grandson. “We wish everyone a merry Christmas.”
Nominated by: Alzheimer’s Community Care
Address: 800 Northpoint Parkway, Suite 101-B, West Palm Beach, FL 33407
Phone: (561) 683-2700
Its mission: To promote and provide specialized, compassionate, quality care to Alzheimer’s disease and related-disorders patients and their caregivers.
