Lewisham

Mission

Quick on the drawers

2 GoodGymers made their way to help an isolated older person in Lewisham.

  • Beth Hoskins
  • Patrick Luong
 
Saturday, 29th of April 2017

Two GG veterans assembled to assemble a chest of drawers and install a doorbell for Meryl in South London, which allowed her to store documents and welcome visitors

Beth and I united to make Meryl's day. Meryl had received a chest of drawers from her daughter as a way of organising her various papers and a doorbell from her son but didn't know how to set them up.

She'd heard about GG at her community centre and knew we were the right people to call.

Heavy metal

We had reasonable track records of flat-pack furniture and I brought an electronic screwdriver in anticipation of lots a wrist action, planks and doweling.

The box was heavy and we were surprised to see the chest of drawers was made of metal with no wood in sight.

It became a task of origami involving folding and slotting. It made us feel strong bending sheets of metal! The wheels were tricky and it was lucky that I'd brought my electric screwdriver for extra force.

After about an hour we'd assembled the neat tower of drawers which Meryl would use to organise various papers and reduce clutter in her front room.

She was delighted with the gift of storage.

You had one job

Meryl also asked if we could change her doorbell as her current one was not doing its sole job of chiming for guests.

We quickly installed the new one and ran through the 36 chimes including some cringeworthy tunes like Memories, Happy Birthday and Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.

Meryl flinched at some of the rejected chimes and settled upon a church bell ring tone.

Farewell

Meryl was really grateful for the help and explained that we'd help her deal with clutter and to welcome visitors.

Beth and I then went on for a celebratory drink or two and a good natter to welcome the Bank Holiday weekend.

Report written by Patrick Luong


Discuss this report

Ruth Taylor
Ruth Taylor
Tuesday May 2nd, 2017 12:35

That filing cabinet is great. Lovely run report.

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