IRON MINES, N.S. — Leaders with L’Arche Cape Breton say the legacy of a man who showed true dedication to the community’s mission will live on in a new residence currently under construction.
L’Arche is a community of people with disabilities and those who choose to share their lives with them. It has six residences in Inverness County, including Thomas House in Mabou.
Gordon Thomas was a physician who retired to the area in the late 1970s, but the community needed a doctor, so he was drafted back into service.
“He actually began quite a busy practice at his office was at his home in Mabou,” Mukthar Limpao, L’Arche executive director and community leader, said in an interview.
“He quickly became L’Arche Cape Breton's family doctor and he built a really beautiful relationship with the core members. He would come to the community and he became very good friends with the community leader at the time, who was Tom Gunn. He supported the community throughout those days because that was back in the early days of residential care and there wasn't really a lot of government funding at the time.”
Thomas would go as far as to help out the community financially if money was short at the end of the month, or if something was needed.
Thomas and his wife Patricia intended to give their Mabou home to L’Arche when he eventually closed his practice. However, he died suddenly after undergoing a planned surgery. The house came into L’Arche’s possession in 1994.
“We had this big beautiful house and we had a presence in a community other than Whycocomagh/Iron Mines/Orangedale,” Limpao said.
But in recent years the cost of needed repairs to Thomas House became more than L’Arche could afford, so the decision was made to sell it and build a new home in Iron Mines. But L’Arche officials first contacted members of the Thomas family to get their approval.
“It's a great house but it's also an aging house and it requires a lot of repairs and we don't really have a lot of money to do all of those,” Limpao said.
Limpao said the decision was made to construct the new home in Iron Mines was made so it could be closer to L’Arche’s programs.
“We have a number of core members who are aging and all of the work programs that really support their needs and in providing meaningful work for them are in our main property in Iron Mines and in Orangedale,” he said.
Winter weather often made it difficult to transport members to those programs.
The Department of Community Services is assisting in paying for the mortgage.
Work on the new Thomas House began July 13 and Limpao said it quickly rose from the ground and is about a week ahead of schedule
“They’re hard-working people, you know, even in the rain they really try to find ways to keep working,” he said.
The hope is to finish construction by the second week of December. The new residence will be able to increase capacity by one core member to four, with four assistants.
Limpao said it was important to continue to pay tribute to what Thomas did for members of the L’Arche community by naming the new building after him. He noted one core member who the patient of Dr. Thomas told Limpao that Thomas saw people with disabilities as friends.
“Leaving it still as Thomas house is a very important piece to remind us that what Dr. Thomas did for L’Arche Cape Breton in the 90s is a great example of why L’Arche exists,” Limpao said. “He knows the people with disabilities are people who have been marginalized, how can you bring them back to the core of society, that these are human beings like us who make valuable contributions to our society.
“We are always reminding ourselves and others of the legacy of Dr. Thomas but also the mission of L’Arche and why we exist.”
