A couple who lost their newborn child were evicted from their home while they were in hospital - and say they had never missed a rent payment.
Rebekah Gidman and her partner, from St Austell, Cornwall, were issued a Section 21 notice before their daughter Ehvadnai fought for her life.
They then received another just months after securing a new place to live and were told they had weeks to vacate as they tried to organise a funeral and grieve.
Ms Gidman gave birth to her daughter in September 2021 at Royal Cornwall Hospital (Treliske) by emergency C-section, reports CornwallLive.
Ehvadnai was born with severe tongue-tie and issues with feeding, before steadily developing further complications.
She was moved to Derriford Hospital, Plymouth, when it became clear the tot needed specialist care.
An eight-week stay there then gave way to a transfer to Bristol Children’s Hospital, as things deteriorated further.
“She had liver failure and a million other problems,” Ms Gidman said.
“Her body was attacking itself, she was having multiple blood transfusions every day, she had a bleed on the brain, a problem with her neck and could only be fed by IV.
“She was taken off a ventilator and she passed away at Bristol after we were transferred.
"All during this time, we also had to look for a new place to live as our landlord had given us an eviction notice.
“We’d never missed a rent payment, even when we were both up at Bristol taking time off work.”
The couple were issued the notice, which gives two months and requires no justification, shortly before Ehvadnai was born.
Ms Gidman herself was at Treliske on oxygen.
She recalled the trauma of looking for a place to live in Cornwall’s volatile rental market while coping with her daughter’s situation.
“We were up in Bristol, couldn't even view places. I must have applied for hundreds, and they were disappearing the day they appeared," she said.
“Even though my daughter was on life support we were searching for houses.
"I can't explain what that’s like. We work here in St Austell, our whole life there. We don’t drive so we need to get to work and stay here.”
When, in November, Ehvadnai passed away, Ms Gidman and her partner found themselves grieving the loss of their daughter, organising a funeral- and still trying to find somewhere to live.
“We were saving for a mortgage before all of this,” she said.
“Everything went to keep where we were and having the funeral, still desperately trying to find somewhere to live.”
A glimpse of success came when, at the turn of the year, the family - which includes other children - found a new three-bed flat in St Austell, albeit an expensive one at £1,000-a-month.
“It wasn’t bad, considering,” Ms Gidman said.
“Everyone is having to pay out so much money, but it doesn’t matter, we had to pay it we didn’t have another choice.”
They moved in on February 11 and began saving up for a mortgage again on the understanding their new St Austell house was a long-term let.
But, in yet another cruel blow for the family, last Friday (June 10), while Ms Gidman was getting ready for work a Section 21 eviction notice fell through the letterbox - four months after the family moved in.
She said: “We had just started trying to pick up our lives again. They said they’re selling, didn’t say why they’re selling.
“Again, we haven’t missed rent, nothing. We owe nothing to anyone but we have to be out by August.
“Imagine trying to sort a funeral with nothing coming in, finding a place, not getting wages as you’re off work, losing everything you’ve saved, still coming up with a deposit and rent in advance - and then being evicted again.
"We didn’t even have time to grieve."
Ms Gidman said the future for her family is still uncertain, and that she’s now facing a choice of uprooting her children’s school lives or waiting for the eviction to pass and being put into emergency accommodation.
