Posts Tagged With: Help

Dad & Thomas August 2010

Since we were told that Dad has only precious time left, many have said, “Just let me know if there is anything I can do.”  Great words to hear and we say, “hanks, we will let you know.”  But we never ask, well I have not asked …. until NOW.  I want to see how many people really want to do something to help us.

One problem Dad has…. he knows he is dying.  In the few moments of clarity, he worries not about dying, but Mom.  If anyone has dealt with someone with dementia, you will understand.  Dad gets something in his mind and he frustrates himself worrying about it.  He only has 25% use of his lungs combined with the dementia.  He amazes me because he does not worry about himself, he worries about us taking care of him, what will happen with Mom when he is gone, who will really look out for his kids and grandkids when he is gone.  Most of this he worried about silently, now he talks to us about it.

One thing he worries about is our barn.  He keeps saying, “I always meant to get it cleaned up.” , or “I thought I had time to do that later.” or “How will Mom mange it.”  I have MS (Multiple Sclerosis), my sister Darlene has had 6 surgeries on her left knee and one on her right knee and Mom is a 74 year-old Southern Belle.  Add us together…. we are worth 1/2 of one healthy person.  I am going to ask if anyone in the Pike county area is willing to help clean up around the barn?  Is there something you can do…yes, help us eliminate one of Dad’s concerns – the barn.  It is a bigger task than Darlene and I can tackle and we need help.

First Loads

We have gotten a start. But it has hardly put a dent in the project. Using a borrowed tuck even to get this far.  Other than a willingness to help we could also use some equipment: chain saw, heavy-duty mower, and maybe even someone with a Bocat would be great to assist.  Our perfect solution would be just to hire it done, but that is not an option.

Once this project is complete, we should be able maintain it.  It is just a bigger project than we can tackle alone and cannot afford to pay for help.  We need the efforts of our community.

There are sheets of tin, lumber, fence post and many other items that if there is something someone can use, they are welcome to take it with them.  There are well more than 3,000 boxes containing 24 plastic clothes hangers in each box and maybe 500 boxes with 144 hangers in each box.  So anyone needing clothes hangers…. we can help you out.   Actually, we will be paying with clothes hangers!! lol

There is a lot of scrap metal. My idea since we cannot pay people for helping; is to use any money from selling the scrap metal to have a meal (party) for all the helpers.  If we can get good money for the scrap… maybe even something to drink as well.

We can accept our status as rednecks or even charity cases, but Dad is worried of us being perceived as “white trash”.  With Dad’s condition… we can tell him just about anything and he will accept it.  We could tell him everything will be ok, it is taken care of.  I prefer to tell him it will be taken care of and it is the truth.  We could let things just grow up and overtake the barn because we no longer farm and really do not “need” the barn… but the close proximity to the house helps us understand why Dad is worried about this.

Home with Barn in Background.

I hope this experiment surprises me!  Just in saying I was going to write about this, I have a commitment from one strong back.  With a lot of help – think  how much easier and faster this project will be.  If you are interested, let me know via e-mail olemiss94@aol.com,  or facebook.  once I see what size crew we have… we will try our best to schedule at a time best for the majority.  If you are not able to physically help – there is always the paypal donation button!! lol  But the fellowship with friends and neighbors will be even better!  😉  Thanks for reading.