A Miracle at Hotel Dieu

After 17 good years of keeping the senior and mostly homebound residents of Hotel Dieu cool and comfortable, the rooftop cooling tower had had enough.

What do you do when your A/C replacement is scheduled on a weekend that turns out to be in the middle of a heatwave? If you are the leaders, staff, and volunteers of St. Vincent Meals on Wheels, you spring into action to do everything you can to keep the senior residents—some of whom are bedbound, blind, and unable to move about freely without help—cool and safe without too much disruption.

Not only did the staff head out to buy portable fans and rent air conditioners for the over 100 units that make up the senior living facility located next to St. Vincent Meals on Wheels, but they also worked overtime to ensure the equipment was distributed to everyone to keep them cool overnight and into the long, hot weekend. The crack HVAC team from Southcoast Facility Services (SCFS) showed up on Saturday as planned to meet Veronica, Kathy G., and other members of the dedicated SVMOW team outside and tackle this urgent problem during the crushing heat.

SCFS needed a construction crane to both remove the old 17-year-old tower and replace it with a state-of-the-art, shiny new one, both weighing in at several tons!

By the afternoon, the new cooling tower had been fully installed. Starting on Sunday, the SVMOW team continued to work by going into each apartment to make sure the A/C unit was working properly, thus ensuring the residents were going to be safe and comfortable.

Just another day in a little corner of the City of Angels, in the heart of our Vincentian Village, where love and miracles thrive.