An Unexpected Evening

When John knocked on my door around 6:00 this evening and asked if I was ready for some physical exercise, I thought he meant the run we'd planned for the evening. But instead he said, "Great. We're helping an old lady move." Apparently his friend Adam had called him up and asked if he could help out moving this woman in a desperate situation: the place she was living (he called it an old folks home, but it didn't really seem like it, and she wasn't really that old) was being torn down and turned into regular apartments. She was supposed to be out by October 30, but has been sick for the last week or so and was granted a few extra days, only to find out that the demolition crew is coming tomorrow to start tearing down the interior. So, Adam's parents asked if he would help her move (they live right around the corner from her), and he called, John, and John called me, and off we went.

It was quite an adventure. She really was not ready to move. Her living room was absolutely full of boxes, as were most of the rest of the rooms. Some things were going to storage, some to the new apartment. Hardly any of the boxes had tops, and if they did, they didn't close. The poor woman was really scattered and concerned about every last box, but I finally sort of took over upstairs and did some packing up of my own, running boxes down the stairs to the guys, who loaded them up. Of course, I ended up doing a lot of rearranging of their packing jobs in the cars and truck cab to make more efficient use of space. I think they were kind of impressed; I made room for three additional large boxes plus a whole bunch of clothes in the back of the truck after they said it was full. :P

As we were driving up to the new apartment, I said to Adam and John, "So, how much smaller do you think this space is going to be than her old place, and how much of this stuff do you think is not going to fit in it?" Adam took the first load up, and when I was passing him on the stairs he muttered, "You called it." Her entire apartment was already full! It was crazy. I don't know how she thinks she's going to get everything in there, because we left the old house pretty darn full as well. It's amazing how much more stuff you seem to have when you move. I know that one. :{ Anyway, we only made the one trip because she needed to spend a bunch more time packing before our time would really be useful, so Adam is going to go over and help her again in the morning. I hope she makes it!

After all that, we walked back over to Adam's house, where I met the rest of his family. John had assumed, and told me, that this woman was a friend of Adam's parents, but we found out afterwards that they didn't actually know her at all. She had just knocked on their door and said she had noticed that there were young men living in the house and asked if any of them would be willing to help her out. Wow. I'm so glad she asked for help. And I'm so glad we were able to be there; it really felt good to have a little community pull together to help her out. Though I must admit, the neighbor of a friend of a friend is probably the most random person I have ever helped to move. And I've helped a lot of people move. :)