Stuff

More than a year ago, I began looking for way to return Suerk to his home on Hilltop Road. Nursing homes have their place. I do believe that. I know there are people who are best served by them. I had visited Suerk's nursing home enough to know that the staff there are extraordinarily kind and attentive. They love him. But I thought we could do better for him. I was motivated by my notion that he would have more to live for back in the home he loves. I wanted him back with his books, his music, his photos, art and clocks. I wanted him to have access to more than a couple hundred square feet of institutional, nursing home sterility. So beginning in early Spring of '09, Stephen and I went to work preparing the home for his return. To put it politely, the little place on Hilltop Road suffered from a case of deferred maintenance. Suerk calls it benign neglect. Whatever. Nearly every square inch of the home needed attention. So we hired contractors, started with a new roof and worked our way down to the basement. New roof, soffits, gutters, down-spouts, full exterior and interior painting, new flooring, chimney work and foundation repair. The work took about six months. We weren’t certain we would find a way for him to return home, but the work had to be done. We felt the issue of transferring him home would work itself out, eventually. In the meantime, the home repairs would have the place prepared for the patient, or ready for sale, whichever eventuality presented itself. During one of the trips up to supervise the work, we were fortunate enough to coordinate our visit with the visit of three old friends – Ron Simar (aka Dad), Don Hill and Dave Tyson. They drove up to Erie to visit Suerk, and also with the intention of lending a hand with the work on the home. It was on our trip to Erie when a neighbor called with the news the house had been robbed of all its valuables. The nature of our visit was profoundly altered. More on that next time.