This was posted by a friend of mine to an AOL board. Just goes to show that not all corporations are heartless bastards.
Okay, some of you may or may not know my husband was deployed in
January. I was lucky enough that he was not shipped out over seas,
but still, gone is gone. We are going on over 2 years of his being
activated as a reservist, though he was at the local base the first
year. Needless to say, the last 11 months have been hard, as I was
laid off of my job in January too. We went from a $120k household a
year to a sad lil $28k on his military salary.
Needless to say, there were quite a few things that needed to be done
around the house that we'd been trying to get done over the last few
years. Our kitchen floor was in desperate need of being replaced (it
was the original vinyl floor of the house, which is now 22 years
old). Our back deck, which is huge and runs the whole length of the
house, needed to be cleaned and sealed sooooo badly. I have nearly
cried a few times after trying to fight to keep the leaves off
watching our beautiful deck start to rot and ruin by the day. Our
bathtub faucets were broken, so that no matter how tight I turned
them, they still dripped a continuous stream of water (bad for our
water bill, and constant mildew). On top of all that, when my german
shepherd severely crippled herself (pinched nerve in her spine) and I
had to spend my show money on her vet bills, we needed a wheelchair
ramp built on the back deck, so she could get up and down the stairs,
as my 98lb butt couldn't haul at 75lb shepherd up and down the
stairs.
Okay.. so those were a few of the many things we needed done around
the house. Things a hubby should do, but given our status, I just
had to muddle through. This is not a pity party btw... I'm getting to
the point of the whole thing.. (grin).
Okay. So. Home Depot has this program for military families who's
spouses are deployed called Project Homefront. Each store gets a
budget and each project gets 1k to do the work. They basically
select families who've written to them to come in and do needed home
repair and such. So I figured what the heck, maybe something good
could come of him being shipped out, right? So that was feburary.
Well, a month ago the store manager of one of the stores contacted me
and they came out to look at the house. They brought their HR
manager in charge and they all met with me, went over what I wanted
to have done (the floor, the ramp, the faucets). A few weeks passed,
blah blah blah, and they came out on Friday to do the work while I
had my last show of the season.
I came home from a pretty good day at the show on Friday and took a
breath as I came up the walk. My front yard and garden had been
raked & weeded, the trees and shrubs pruned, the ponds winterized and
even my roses pruned to perfection. I couldn't believe it. But just
wait..
The driveway and sidewalks had been pressurewashed and looked freshly
poured, they even did the curb on the street! And I could still hear
the pressure washer in the back. I came inside, and there was my
beautiful new laminate floor, and two brand new white pantry cabinets
for my soap supplies (which had been on open black metal shelves).
The faucets in the bathtub were brand new and not a drop of water
dripped. I was almost in tears, my son could take a bath now in a
nice clean tub.....But just wait....
So then I went out in the back to see what they were doing. There
was one gentleman on the back deck, pressure washing our deck. The
wood looked brand new. The green and brown discoloration and moss
was all gone, and the beautiful wood was staring back at me. The
wheelchair ramp had been built. I just about lost it. Then I looked
in the backyard. The huge pile of scrap wood, nails, and metal door
frames the idiots who owned the house prior to us left after ripping
off the old deck was gone. The overgrown backyard (over 1/2-3/4's of
an acre) was mowed, the kudzu and poison ivy gone, the downed
brances, the brush pile, all of it gone. My son could now play in
his own backyard.
I burst into tears and gave that kind man a huge hug. He'd said that
they'd all wanted to be gone before I'd gotten there, but he had a
pressure washing business on the side, and that he'd just wanted to
do this for me too. He is also here, right now, because he wasn't
happy with how the deck came out, so he's redoing it, again!!
I still walk around my house and see all of the wonderful things
these people did for our family and it brings tears to my eyes.
These were 12 home depot employees who did this work for a complete
family of strangers on their day off, without getting paid. I am so
touched by what they've done, and I and my family will forever be
Home Depot Customers for life. I just had to share how incredible
these people are.
Nitram, slightly high on cough syrup: Do you know you're beautiful?
Me: Nope, that's why I have you around to tell me.
Nitram: You -are- beautiful. Anyone tries to tell you otherwise kill them.
"A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP" -- Leonard Nimoy, last Tweet
