A daughter was emotional after her mum was evicted from her care home just days before Christmas.
Margaret Smith was forced to leave Kingsley Care Home in Birkdale just weeks after her daughter received a phone call telling her that her mum had to leave by December 17.
The news came after Kingsley Care Home on Trafalgar Road, Southport was sold to the Dovehaven Group, a company that own care homes across Merseyside and West Lancashire.
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As the deadline loomed, Sue Barfoot was stressed over telling her mum that she had to leave the home that she had lived at for just three months whilst her health deteriorated.
The stability she sought was quickly tossed out the window as she began packing her mum's belongings last Saturday ahead of moving her mum to Elm House care home on the other side of Southport days later.
On Tuesday, December 14 her mum became ill with anxiety as she was evicted from her home that she had become settled in.
On the day, 90-year-old Margaret was the last of the residents left in the home, having stayed the night alone as all other residents had packed up and left in the days and weeks before the eviction deadline.
Margaret suffers from crippling arthritis and requires a hoist to get her out of bed, meaning that she requires 24-hour care.
In the weeks leading up to the day of the move, Sue had seen her mum's health quickly decline, with her spending days in bed at a time.
Sue, 66, told the ECHO last month: "She was struggling to live at home because of her extensive needs. She can't get out of bed and she can't stand on her own, she can't mobilise without the aid of a hoist.
"Every day they have to hoist her to perform her personal care and look after whatever toileting needs she has. Then she is put into a chair where she watches her television in her room.
"She can feed herself but I can see the day coming when she won't be able to because she is crippled with arthritis. She has to be monitored to make sure she is drinking enough and she has periods of confusion. She doesn't have dementia but she does have times where she gets quite confused and she is very frail.
"She was hospitalised about three weeks ago because she had a bit of an episode where she was vomiting and things like that so she was taken to Southport infirmary.
"A consultant then phoned me on the second day where he said they wanted to discuss my mum's needs and they said that they think that she is probably in the last year of her life.
"You're getting the impression that she isn't exactly hale and hearty, she is extremely frail, and you just have to walk around the home to realise that there are a lot of people in the same boat."
Sue spoke recently about the traumatising day where she was forced to move her ill mum.
Fighting back the tears, she told the ECHO: "It was hideous, it was just hideous. The only way I managed to keep it together was because I didn't want to make the situation any worse.
"It wasn't easy, it was horrible. It's the last thing I would've wanted when I put her in there. We all thought it was for the best, we all thought she was better off because she had 24-hour care which was great.
"I can't fault the care at all but for this to happen, hindsight is a wonderful thing and had I known that this was how it was going to go I would have thought very seriously about whether she should move from [her] home at all.
"It was coming but to have this happen is just disastrous."
On the day, Sue praised the staff but was still forced to watch her mum fall ill with the stress of moving.
Sue said: "It was Tuesday [December 14] but we had already gone over on Saturday [December 11] and packed up half of her stuff and left the other half so she wasn't left in a bare room, and took it to Elm House.
"On the Tuesday we got there about 11.15am and we had a taxi booked for 1.30pm. The staff at the care home had very kindly packed up the rest of her belongings and put them in the car. I've got no criticism of them at all, they're as nice as they could possibly be because they're all mortified as well.
"Mum seemed absolutely fine at the time but she has really deteriorated in the last few weeks. She's not really eating at all so for her lunch she only had a liquid lunch. I tried to reassure her and I told her that we were going to take the rest of her stuff over and make her room really nice, which it is at Elm House.
"I'd put up Christmas lights, she has her tele, in all fairness, it's probably nicer than the room at Kingsley. I said I'd go in the taxi with her so I was going to be back for 1.30pm but when I got back there the taxi was already there and they had brought her down.
"The matron was there and she was quite distressed. She said 'your mum has just been sick and I'm not sure whether they're going to take her in case there is anything infectious or wrong with her. But I have done all of her observations and she's fine, her temperature is fine, if anything it's a bit low'.
"Then she asked me if I thought she was anxious and I said 'yes, I do, definitely'. She doesn't show it outwardly but that's how it manifests itself.
"I said I wasn't happy going in the taxi with mum because she really wasn't well so they sent one of the carers with her which was kind of them.
"We then went on ahead and warned them at Elm House and they put her straight to bed. I felt so sorry for her. She looked dreadful."
Dovehaven and Kingsley Care Home released the following joint statement: "Kingsley Nursing Home are selling to the Dovehaven Group and the existing premises at Trafalgar Road will no longer be operational.
"The Dovehaven Group have nine Homes in the Southport area and as such are able to offer a high standard of care for the specific needs of all Kingsley Residents.
"All the Residents and their relatives have been offered alternative accommodation at a Dovehaven Group home of their own choosing and all the Kingsley Staff are being offered comparable employment within The Dovehaven Group and with placements as groups to try to keep proven working teams together.
"We are very conscious of personal choice and all parties are aware that other providers and employers are also available but selling to the Dovehaven Group means that there will hopefully be some continuity between Residents and Staff in an effort to minimise any anxieties."
The company offered to rehome those at Kingsley Care Home to any home under their management, offering the same rate as Kingsley, although the extent of the agreement was unclear.
The ECHO believes that a number of residents from Kingsley Care Home took the company up on the offer following the closure notice.
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