The Final Day

The Final Day

 

And what a day it turned out to be.  We never received any instructions as to where we were needed until 8:47am.  

Our destination was back in massapaque, not to far from where we gutted the Bungalow on day one.  We arrived at 10:30 am but this time it was a lady called Lauren that we were working with.  Another volunteer called Monil accompanied Lauren.  He is a recent graduate in Bio Chemistry, but decided that now school was out of the way he wanted to spend some time volunteering his services with Long Island Volunteers. 

Our first job turned out to require a lot of Brute strength.  First there was the demolition of the ceiling in the basement, and then the clear up and mould suppression.  Whilst Connie, Janice, Bill and myself were down stairs performing those duties, Cliff and Arthur were with Howard the owner and Monil removing dead bushes plants and trees from around the entire property. 

Arthur and Monil hard at work

This tree never came out no matter how hard they tried

Well downstairs was completed in a very short time so I went upstairs to assist the landscapers.  When I got upstairs they were all hunkered around a dead tree stump, so I picked up a shovel and started digging alongside.  Two minutes later my shovel snapped.  Doh..  I picked up a short-handed shovel and continued where I left off.  Well not for long because I managed to snap the handle on that one too.  After that I thought it best to leave it to the experts, as we could not afford to lose another shovel.

Eventually after a lot of grunting, digging, bending, shoving and pulling someone appeared with the proper tools for the job.  Oh the difference that made.  Well almost, there were two trees that needed heavy machinery, but everything else was dug up and moved out to the curb.  Howard and his wife were very grateful.  I did not catch her name, she came over to thank us and they handed us three very large pizzas, but she had to rush, as she was late for a bridal shower. 

As we were finishing up, a job came through for a small project in some ladies garden not to far from where we were.  We all packed up and headed out for what we thought would be a small and quick job.  One thing I learnt on this mission.  Never assume anything.

Annette lived about 2 blocks from the coast of Oyster Bay, and when we arrived she was very pleased to see us and show us what needed to be done.  Monil had arrived to the job first so he gave us a tour of the small project.

After a few hours of relocating the wood pile (TWICE), bagging construction materials and relocating bricks, breeze blocks and what felt like a million flower pots, we were all rather tired and hot. 

All of the debris we removed from Annette's Garden

Once the exterior work was complete we went inside to do some furniture moving and then we were told that was it.  Our last job was now complete.  Annette was a lovely woman, and we all shared some time to take pictures and a few hug, and for the last time we were headed back through Brooklyn to Christ Risen for our last night.  

Annette trying to handover money to say thank you.  We said no repeatedly, taking this picture though helped her to forget

The Goers at the end of our last job of the trip with Annette on the left

Before we left, we were told to take a look at the bay, and especially to see a spot where a house once stood.  The story told to us was that the house was torn from its foundations and floated almost a block away.

A house once stood here.  Sandy washed her away

Oyster bay...At the end of the road from Annettes house.