A large pot, with a big black burned mark on the bottom, was a symbol of the reopening of the Medicine Tree Manor last week.

During the flood of 2013 Lauren Ingalls, chief administration officer, took a pot, can opener and a ladle with her when she left the building thinking she would make soup for the residents for their supper.

She also believed they would be back to the manor very soon.

"I kept that pot for almost 4- and-a-half-years," said Ingalls. "It became almost like a symbol of our journey and our struggle, especially once the fire happened. Today I presented the pot to our staff just as a symbol of the resilience our seniors have in the community."

After the flood the building was torn down and rebuilt and months before the residents were to move back in a fire torn through the structure destroying it once again.

"That pot symbolizes life, vibrancy and of course many wonderful meals," said Ingalls.

Former Councillor Glenda Cutforth also presented a special gift at the opening.

She came into possession of all the ordinal paper work from the sixties when the manor started which included a letter, a receipt for one dollar and a certificate from the department of welfare from the province of Alberta.

"What happened is the girls were digging around in the old archival papers at the Town of High River and they gave me these documents."

There had been rumours for years that the ordinal building had been bought for a dollar and these documents confirmed it.

"So I kept these thinking I want to have them framed, but I'm not sure how to give them back. I want to give them to the manor, because the town of high river obviously didn't want them anymore because they have given them to me."

Watching the buildings burn to the ground, including the Prairie addition which she worked really hard on was almost unbearable.

"They have lost so much. They have lost all of their archival things that were in that manor, the flood didn't take so much of that away but the fire definitely did."