Family of 3 gets keys to new Habitat home in Central Islip
Homeowner Flora Ikuomenisan reacts after seeing her new kitchen at the unveiling of her new Habitat for Humanity home in Central Islip on Friday. Credit: Morgan Campbell
The mother of two fell to her knees, her eyes filling with tears as she entered the living room of her new house built by Habitat for Humanity of Suffolk.
Flora Ikuomenisan, 35, had just received the keys to her new Central Islip house at a Friday ceremony. The home will provide stability for herself and her children, Titilayo, 8, and Temiloluwa, 5, she said.
The four-bedroom, two-bathroom home is the 53rd Habitat house built in Islip Town, said chapter CEO Lee Silberman, who credited town officials for their support.
Ikuomenisan spent 300 hours working with the nonprofit on her home; that's on top of her full-time night shift job as a cardiac monitor technician at South Shore University Hospital in Bay Shore. She also is pursuing a nursing degree at Suffolk County Community College, from which she will graduate next month. She said she often arrived to the worksite immediately after her night shift and changed in her car before tackling physical work on her home.
“This event will continue to remind me that no matter how hard life is, there will always be times and situations to remind that life is worth living,” she said. “There will always be joy at the end of the day.”
Ikuomenisan moved from Nigeria in 2014 to Coram, arriving in Central Islip in 2018. Over the past eight years, the family has had seven different residences, which stripped them of stability, she said. Moving homes often meant her daughter changed school districts, Ikuomenisan said.
Signing a new lease granted only a temporary reprieve from anxiety before the search for a new residence began again in hopes of finding better living situations with more affordable rent, she said. Adding to the stress, Ikuomenisan became a single mom after she divorced her former husband. Homeownership was an expense that seemed insurmountable, she said.
Ikuomenisan applied for a home with Habitat at the urging of her mother, but doubted she'd be chosen.
"Today is one of the happiest days," she said. "This is a huge, unexpected blessing."
Her daughter and son will now have their own bedrooms. Titilayo gleefully showed off her bedroom to visitors at Friday’s ceremony while her brother played outside in their yard.
Titilayo cried tears of joy when she learned she’d be moving into a forever home, her mother said. When asked how she planned to decorate her bedroom, Titilayo didn’t hesitate. “Pink, pink, pink, everything pink,” she told Newsday.
Her bedroom offers a glimpse of the backyard, where the girl plans to plant a vegetable garden and flowers. She said she was eager to grow her own food so her family wouldn't have to rely on a grocery store.
The family was thrilled to discover the kitchen was already stocked with food and supplies, donated by Middle Country Library Teen Advisory and the Rotary Club of Smithtown.
“I want to use this opportunity to tell single mothers … they can do it,” Ikuomenisan said. “Have a goal, and when you do, walk toward it.”
Brinley Hineman covers the Town of Hempstead and the City of Long Beach for Newsday. She previously was a reporter in Nashville, Tennessee, and is a West Virginia native.
