Madeleine Jug has endured so much heartache after being the only member of her family to survive the Holocaust and live to tell her tale following time spent in a concentration camp in Poland.
Now, the 91-year-old Barrie woman needs a little help.
With no kin to lean on, Jug has been living with family friend Patty Picarelli since Oct. 25, 2019, but the soft-spoken little lady has been without a proper shower since that time due to accessibility issues and being unable to get upstairs. She's been using a laundry room sink to wash her hair.
"There's lots of good people still in this world, and I don't complain. You know, the good Lord is still very good to me," Jug told BarrieToday as her eyes welled up. "He give me my eyesight, he give me life. I haven't got it bad, I just have no place to wash with. That's the only thing that is missing, or else the good Lord provide for me pretty good."
With help from the Chabad Jewish Centre of Barrie, they've raised almost half of their $2,600 goal to cover the costs of materials and labour for renovations, which get underway today at the south-end home near Mapleton Avenue and Essa Road.
Picarelli, who's a single mom, has created a main-floor living area on one side of the house for Jug, who was a close friend of Picarelli's father. After Jug's husband died, she lived with Picarelli and her dad in Thornton for a while in the early 2000s.
"She was here when he took his last breath," Picarelli said of her father.
"Her and I always kept in touch," she added. "With me not having a mom and no parent left, I was drawn to her more. I love her like a mom. She's so sweet."
The renovations include a ramp at the front door, a handrail or level ground at the back porch so Jug can enjoy the rear yard, and, most importantly, the installation of a ground-floor shower to replace the two-piece bathroom.
Jug had been living in a walkout basement apartment in the city's north end, but Picarelli said the situation became untenable from financial and safety points of view, so she took her into her home.
"Finally, I had had enough and told her she was moving in with me," said Picarelli, adding she was determined to find a way to make the limited space within her home work for Jug. "To me, seniors should be revered. They should be worshipped. She has no kids and I have no parent. I guess you could say we adopted each other."
Jug's physician told her she can't live on her own anymore, but she doesn't have the income to hire a caregiver.
"I am OK, but I cannot walk the steps. I can't do it. I try," said Jug, adding she's appreciative for all the help she has received.
The Barrie Home Depot has donated materials, such as tiles and drywall, while MRK Contracting has provided a significant discount on the work they'll be doing on the house.
Jug was born in Mons, Belgium in 1928 and lived in Limburg from the age of seven. In February 1942, the Nazis captured the teenager and sent her to a camp in Krakow, Poland.
"It was like a room with four barrels of water," she recalled through tears during an interview with BarrieToday. "Most of the kids got typhoid, but we couldn't drink water. So my neighbour girl and I — they took us together — she was dying. So I took water and I give it (to her) because I said I'm going to die, too, anyway.
"A soldier threw a knife (at me) and that saved my life," Jug added. "The doctor came once a week (the wound) was very bad, so he took me to the hospital to clean it. Instead of taking me back to camp, he had everything set up to let me go."
Jug says that physician — who had a German name but was from England — was her saviour.
"I'll never forget him," she said, her voice trembling. "He did it for me and that girl. That's all I know."
The doctor was able to place the two young girls with a couple in what she believes was the Austrian countryside where she and her friend could be hidden from the Nazis. The husband and wife provided them with hot meals and sandwiches.
"They hide us in the barn under the hay ... and let us come out at night to feed us and then we went back. I went from one place to another. They took you at night and never told you (where you were going)," Jug said of the month or so she spent in hiding. "We stay in the daytime in the ground and in the nighttime we come up.
"But they were nice to us. They feed us, they give us clothes, because all we had was a potato sack," Jug said through tears. "That's all we had. No shoes, no nothing. I was very lucky. My foot give me life. It was not easy."
From 10 p.m. until midnight, they could come out and go to the house before returning to the barn. She said sometimes the Nazi soldiers would raid at night, which is what happened to her father, who was captured one morning at 3 a.m.
"You never know when they come," she said.
Jug's mother died before the Second World War. Her father was taken by the Nazis on June 17, 1941, and murdered. In 1944, her twin brother, Maurice, was also shot and killed.
"Nobody left," she said.
Jug ended up in England in 1944 and was back to Belgium later that year. After the war, Jug inquired about the doctor who saved her life, but was never able to ascertain what happened to him. After a few moments thinking back to that harrowing time, she came up with a name: Dr. Acbak.
Jug, whose husband had cousins in Toronto, came to Canada in 1946 and first settled in Montreal for two years, "because I could speak French," she said with a smile, adding she also speaks Flemish and German. They moved to Toronto in 1948. Her first husband died in 1950. She remarried and, in 1980, they came to Barrie where they had friends.
Rabbi Mendel Nakkar said hearing Jug recount her life story to a BarrieToday reporter brought tears to his eyes.
"Hearing all the details, it just emphasizes the importance," he said. "It's important to help everybody, but when it comes to seniors, it is underscored. When it comes to someone who was a victim of the atrocities that she went through, it's underscored even more.
"It's important for everyone to realize that when we hear about someone in need, it doesn't matter which faith they belong to, we should open our doors and help," added Nakkar.
For anyone looking to donate, click here for the Go Fund Me page, or visit the Chabad Jewish Centre of Barrie's Facebook page where you can also make a contribution.
"Within 24 hours, about half of the goal had come in," Nakkar said, "so we've been positively surprised by the great response."
However, Picarelli says she has also received backlash from someone saying she just wants donations to increase the value of her home, which she says couldn't be farther from the truth.
"This isn't going to up the value, it's actually going to decrease it," she said. "But that's OK. This isn't about the value of the house, it's about her and giving her as much independence as I can. That's what keeps her going."
