A Day in the Life of a Furniture Volunteer
By Tom Humphreys
By Tom Humphreys
On the surface it seemed a pretty routine furniture run at Friends In Deed. Our assignment was to pick up three twin beds from the donor’s home and then deliver them to the client’s residence. As it turned out the donor was a little unique: a family from New Zealand whose three children had grown and moved on, and now their parents decided to part with the three twin beds. And not just your routine beds: it turns out the bed frames were Ethan Allen brand with fine mattresses and box springs to boot. I think it was some of the finest furniture I’ve ever delivered from Friends In Deed (FID); and as it worked out, the Ethan Allen beds never even saw the inside of the FID warehouse!
Patrick and I stopped by the clients’ residence and begin unloading the furniture (bed frames/box springs/mattresses as well as some living room furniture) with the help of Tim, the father of the three girls. We were pretty excited talking about what excellent condition the furniture was in. As we brought the beds in, I noticed just how clean and well-kept the residence was in. In the upstairs where the three girls had their rooms, each room was simply spotless. Somebody knew how to keep house big time.
After unloading the bed frames, we uncharacteristically decided to stay and help put everything together. I think the reason we decided to stay and help assemble was because it was such excellent furniture. Whatever the reason, turns out that Patrick and I were mostly helpless. After several attempts, we had to admit that we simply could not figure out how the particular assembly of the Ethan Allen brand worked. Watching from the sidelines, the kids’ father Tim quietly suggested that he would give it a try. On his first attempt, he succeeded. I’m not making this up. After showing us how it was done, we joined in and assisted him as he proceeded with the assembly work.
We were working on assembling the frames upstairs when we heard the front door open and some commotion downstairs. It was Lana and her children arriving home as school was out. What we did hear was the squealing of three elementary age girls when they caught sight of the living room furniture FID had delivered. “We’re used to seeing an empty room!” They had been in the residence for little more than 3 months and were finally able to enjoy sofa and chair and cabinet in their living room.
The girls ran upstairs as we were assembling their Ethan Allen furniture. It was no small amount of fun to share with them that this was some of the finest pieces we had ever delivered from FID. The girls actually pitched in and assisted in assembling their own beds. Their excitement and appreciation was pretty contagious. So we heard a little more of the story as we spoke with Lana downstairs before we left. She related that some three years earlier there had been a bed bug outbreak in Wayne County where they were living. They had had to dispose of the girls’ beds as a result. Since they had moved into the current residence some three months earlier, all of the family members had been sleeping on air mattresses on the floor.
Both Lana and Tim are employed; Lana is working fast food as well as going to school at WCC. I had to ask her before we walked out the door, “How in the world are do you get your girls to keep their rooms so remarkably clear??” Lana related that growing up in the South, her mother had been single parent and had cleaned homes to make ends meet for her large family. “And oftentimes she would take us with her when she cleaned, and we would help.” Lana shared that her plan and dream is to own her own cleaning business; it is the reason she is currently in school taking classes.
The combination of hearing their story, listening to the delighted squeals, and watching the gratitude and appreciation on their faces was about as much as I could take. This was a good day in the day-to-day workings of Friends In Deed.