Before and After, and Christmas in April

The “Before” was when my teenaged son Johnny had a congenital heart condition, a great golf swing, a wicked wit, and was looking forward to his freshman year of high school. The last perfect day of “Before” was May 1^st, 2004, a beautiful Saturday here in Hyattsville. That night Johnny, howling with laughter at a favorite TV spoof, collapsed when an unexpected arrhythmia caused his heart to arrest. Combined with residual brain injury from three open-heart surgeries, the lack of oxygen during his arrest left him with devastating disabilities. After nearly six months in three hospitals, Johnny came home a quadriplegic, unable to speak or move anything but his eyes to signal yes or no. That was when the “After” began, as his younger brother Tommy and I adjusted (or not) to the changes in our loved one and the rhythms of our household, with the invasion of nurses and medical equipment and deliverymen.

Because God lives on Madison Street (in case you wondered), we are surrounded by neighbors who are also friends. These extraordinary people sustained us in a thousand ways over that first year of Johnny’s disability -- they fed us, prayed for us, bolstered Tommy, paid overdue utility bills, knocked down walls, painted Johnny’s new first-floor bedroom, and found a donated wheelchair lift, among countless other gifts of time, compassion, and effort.

But neighbors have their own families to tend, and though I had begun working from home, my financial resources were gone. I was looking at large-scale home maintenance needs with no funds left to draw on. I was just breaking out in hives when my sister in Ohio called to pass on encouragement from a co-worker in Cleveland: “Call Christmas in April, Prince George’s County,” she said. “You need Mary Kucharski.”

I knew Christmas in April as an organization of volunteers who spend a day every spring helping folks with limited incomes tackle home maintenance tasks that are beyond their resources. What I didn’t know was that Christmas in April has partners who “adopt” homes needing more than a day’s work – 87 in Prince George’s County this year. I also didn’t know that Christmas in April would turn out to be the best-run, most responsive and competent group of do-gooders I am ever likely to know, and I’ve done my own fair share of volunteering over the years, thank you.

Mary Kucharski, Christmas in April’s executive director, placed my home under the competent wing of NV Homes, in the person of Brad Wilson. Brad is not only a caring and compassionate fellow, but is one of the most conscientious and effective managers to be found anywhere. He came to do a needs assessment many weeks before the April 29 “event day,” and then started scheduling contractors – always at my convenience – to take care of the big projects I thought could never get done.

He sent electricians to wire the donated wheelchair lift into the house so I could take the extension cord and towel stuffing out of my window. Then retired electrician Larry McDaniel put in a security light, ran new circuits and installed outlets in the most useful places, including the new deck that went up in two days, customized for Johnny’s wheelchair lift and ramped into the yard so he can enjoy being outdoors again – and there’s now a stone pathway leading to the garden so he can even sit in the shade. Brad sent a plumber to replace a dead dishwasher and disposal. Drywall guys came by one day and in less than a morning had beautifully finished the widened doorways my family and friends had pounded through the lath-and-plaster walls of my cute but pre-Depression-era house. And they filled one of those openings with a beautiful new door for Johnny’s room, which now adjoins the family room where he spends most of his time. That would be the family room that has new carpeting and a new flat screen TV for the movies he loves to watch. I had asked Brad if he had someone who could replace the broken springs on my garage door, and he sent someone to replace the whole door and install an opener. The man was unstoppable.

My sister drove down from Ohio for the April 29^th event day. Brad Wilson and our Christmas in April house captain, Theresa Creel, arrived with nearly 20 volunteers, mostly NV Homes employees, who proceeded to whip my yard, gutters and garage into spectacular presentability. They painted, they schlepped, they laughed and joked around, and they even brought food. One spouse of an NV employee brought Johnny a personalized photo of Air Force One and then, because he is an actual Air Force One mechanic, proceeded to surgically disassemble my ailing lawn mower. The mower proved to be terminal, beyond even the skills of this man, who strolled up my driveway a week later with a like-new mower he’d reconditioned for us. (I know this was official, because he was wearing his uniform.) His wife had led the team that transformed my embarrassingly untended front yard into a newly, mulched, shrubbed, and flowering garden. These are volunteers like you’ve never seen before.

I could go on and on, but the important point here is that Christmas in April of Prince George’s County could teach the rest of the country a thing or two about joining forces across the corporate gulf and making a big difference in the lives of others. Christmas in April and NV Homes made changes to our home that hadn’t even made it to my wish list yet and, whether direct or indirect, these improvements have made life better and more dignified for my son.

I love where I live, and I will be forever grateful to Christmas in April, NV Homes, and all the skilled and compassionate people they brought into the life of my family. The “After” here on Madison Street may not exactly be Happily Ever, but it’s really, really good. Thank you, Christmas in April -- you’ve got the biggest heart in the world.

MaryAnn

Mom of Johnny and Tom

Hyattsville, MD