This was the thought that ran through Eddie’s mind as he stared at the home of an elderly woman on this past Volunteers for Seniors Day.

But not before some pretty serious struggles.

Eddie (back row, 4th from right) and his volunteer group were assigned to clean the home of an elderly woman on January 20^th.  He thought that they would just be doing some dusting, mopping, and (at the most) some cleaning of the glass in the windows.

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But this was the scene that greeted him when he arrived at the home – bags containing who-knows-what were all over the place.  Cockroaches were running around.  The rest of the house could be described with just one word – black.

The ceiling, the floor, the walls, the pile of stuff in the corner, the kitchen, the bathroom – uncleaned for so many years – had all turned black.

The elderly woman, though in relatively good health, was visibly in low spirits (and who wouldn’t be if one were living in a home such as this?).

Everyone in the group took a deep breath, got up the courage and went to work.

They spent five hours scrubbing the floor, the walls, the bathroom, the kitchen, a door, and whatever they could tackle.  When it became late in the day and there was still much to be done, they called in another group to help.

After hours of hard work and many buckets of dirty, black water dumped away, retro style floor tiles began to emerge.  The door which the volunteers thought was a dark brown colour started to show that it was actually a soft shade of silver.  Eddie and his friends began to see light shining into the apartment.

As the volunteers packed up to leave, the elderly woman shed tears of joy, relief and gratitude.  She told them that for many years, she had been despised by her neighbours for having a messy, dirty, and smelly house.  She said that though other volunteer groups had come before, they were all scared away by such a tremendously challenging job.  Eddie and his group were the only volunteers who actually rolled up their sleeves and made life-changing difference for her.

Sometimes we just have to ask ourselves, “If I don’t do it, who will?”

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