BONNY RIVER - When flood waters breached the bank of Bonny River and spilled eight inches deep onto Jeff Taylor's living room floor, one of the few items left untouched by the rising water was the family Christmas tree, bulbs and lights still hanging, its silver star unscathed.
Perhaps it was a sign that Christmas would happen at the old manor even in spite of the flooding disaster, because right now, that's all Taylor cares about.
The 53-year-old Bonny River resident, with the help of family, friends and volunteers, has been working tirelessly to restore the more than 100-year-old home he shares with his wife, Shelley, and their six-year-old son, Ashton.
Dozens of families across Charlotte County were forced from their homes and faced the prospect of not returning before Dec. 25 after extreme rainfall deluged southwestern New Brunswick last week.
But Taylor was determined that his family would spend Christmas Day under its own roof.
"We're going to get back in and bring my wife home before Christmas," Taylor said.
"It's her last one."
Taylor's wife Shelley, 41, suffers from a terminal illness. Without getting specific about the nature of her illness, Taylor said she's expected to only have a few months remaining.
It was bound to be a hard enough holiday for the family, let alone the disaster that flooded their basement and main level, ruining a full dumpster's worth of furniture and valuables.
But it was having a warm, dry home to spend Christmas in that Taylor really cared about, and even as the rain pounded last Monday he wasn't concerned about a flood.
Before too long, though, his gut told him otherwise.
"I sat down to watch TV and I could see water shining in the field from the street lights up on the hill, and at dusk there hadn't been anything in the field," Taylor recalled.
"It was coming up so fast and I knew I was going to be in trouble."
By daybreak on Tuesday, Taylor's truck was submerged, his house surrounded by water and his family stranded.
A rescue boat from the local fire station was called in early Tuesday to safely transport Taylor's wife to hospital, where she's been ever since.
Taylor and his son are staying at a relative's house in Bonny River while he orchestrates the time-crunched cleanup.
The basement was gutted and damaged items were removed.
Industrial strength heaters worked around the clock to dry the space.
Upstairs on the main floor, where dirt stains about eight inches up the walls tell how high the water rose, no fewer than 10 high-powered heaters and a handful of industrial strength dehumidifiers flushed out the dampness. The furniture that couldn't be stored upstairs was stacked one on top of the other.
Steve Taylor, Jeff's brother, said no fewer than 100 people have been by to assist in the cleanup.
"It's overwhelming, the generosity of the people and companies," Steve said, adding an industrial cleanup crew has been on-site as well.
The main task now is getting the ground floor dried out enough so that bacteria and mould can't grow.
Environment Canada issued another severe weather warning for New Brunswick on Monday, calling for 10-33 millimeters of rainfall across the province. However, officials with the New Brunswick Emergency Measures Organization said most of the rain should miss the already battered Charlotte County area and they don't expect any new flooding in Bonny River.
That's good news for Jeff Taylor, who is confident the cleanup efforts that he and his friends, family and others put forth in the last week will not be in vain.
"We'll get everything cleaned up, get the furniture back in place, fill up the fridge with some grub," he said, "put the presents back under tree and have Christmas."
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