When Wayne and I moved out of our Bountiful home we had a ton of boxes dropped off at our door. We had many friends and family come by and put my kitchen away, or haul holiday boxes out of the basement. We paid for a piano mover to move our piano. We got a u-haul to load it all up. We had boxes and tape and helpers coming out of our ears! I remember Nan Bruske lovingly wrapping up each glass and each plate in foam so they wouldn't break... So many offering help and giving help. I had a broken foot at the time, so I got to my Layton house and basically stayed here while an army of people hauled boxes and furniture into the truck and came up to Layton to unload. I didn't even have to clean my old home-- ward members did it. I'm so grateful. We were truly blessed.
Cut to..... Tuesday night:
Wayne and I have been ministering to a Max- a transman - in our ward and their two kids- 8 and 4 years old. Max is moving to Farmington and then to North Salt Lake to live with their mom. Well, we got a text Tuesday night at 8:00 saying Max needs help moving a rocking chair and a chest freezer. That's all they told the Bishop they needed help with...but they needed to be moved out by midnight-- or have to pay more rent, which they did not have. We called Monson to get his truck and help and proceeded to Max's apartment.
We had been to Max's apartment before to meet and visit with them. Max gave me a beautiful star-shaped afghan since they love to crochet. Very sweet.
Well, the apartment is packed with stuff. No place to walk or sit. A bed in the living room where a couch should be, because that's where the heater works. Two cats and a dog roaming around, and things and stuff and garbage everywhere... no table in sight, cuz it's covered with stuff... and literally piled high and deep and the smell was BAD.
I was wondering why a rocking chair and freezer would be the only thing they needed help with? When we showed up Tuesday night to help with the move the beds and dressers had been moved to the mom's storage unit and the table and chairs... but nothing else! We drove up in Monson's truck and Max was piling things in their mom's minivan with the kids buckled in the seats, trying to be good sports. Max can't drive-- so the momma has to help with that.
Well...the beds were moved out, but everything else was there..and trying to get the rocking chair and full chest-sized freezer out meant stepping on and over a ton of stuff. Max was so gracious and appreciative that we came to help. Well.... we asked if there were any boxes-- no, only white kitchen garbage bags to pile stuff into..we shook our heads and tried not to say anything and we started scooping stuff into garbage bags and finished loading up Monson's truck and the white minivan and went over to the mom's apartment in Farmington to unload.
The mom's apartment was not easy to get into...in a building, up an elevator and down two long hallways. Yikes. The mom's apartment was just as full as Max's with zero room to put anything. We put the rocking chair in the middle of a squished living room and plugged the freezer in the middle of the messy kitchen...it's all just CRAZY.
At this point we knew we couldn't leave Max and momma to try and clear out the apartment by midnight with the little kids in tow..so we excused Monson since his eye was swelling shut because he is so allergic to cats..and said a prayer to decide who we could call to come and help us at 9:30 at night. Jay and Bonnie Benedict-- the one set of friends we have made in our new ward -- were in their jammies but got dressed and came over to help along with 3 bins and some heavy-duty garbage bags. We don't have boxes-- and Benedicts didn't have boxes so we continued with the garbage bag route-- filling them up with all sorts of miscellaneous stuff-- just scooping stuff off of the floor and filling a bag, putting it in a wagon and pulling out to the cars. Max and the momma were so gracious. So thankful and kind to us around all of this. Really sweet.
We had my car, the truck, the Benedict's car, and the minivan piled high and deep. It was just so much!! We had to empty the fridge into-- one of the wagons, and the rest into garbage bags, the silverware, knives, plates, cups-- all breakable things into, you guessed it, garbage bags. ( Nan was not there lovingly wrapping each individual item, that's for sure.) It was a crazy solution. Just stuff piled onto stuff. There were many things I considered garbage, but Max wouldn't/couldn't throw it away-- may need it in the future. We worked for hours-- bagging and cleaning, vacuuming, wiping down. Wayne was blessed to be able to work in and around all this cat hair and be able to keep going.
We went to get in our cars-- and now the rain was pouring down. I started to cry. Not this too. I prayed and begged the Lord to stop the rain and by the time we pulled into the apartment in Farmington-- no rain! Prayer was answered. Thank you, Lord! Seriously, I felt very seen by God and knew we were His hands on this night. We left the apartment in Layton just after 11:00pm and then we had to load all of this stuff upstairs to the mom's apartment where there was NO room. We ended up just leaving bags in the hallway that Max is going to have to go through and figure out what to do with everything. The bags extended easily 50 feet down the hallway.
We got home a little before 1am-- took showers and dropped into bed! And we get to do this all over again, moving the mom and Max into a section 8 home in NSL. Aye-yay-yay! But we should have more warning to get helpers and we will get some boxes to them in advance.
I'm so sad Max doesn't have "people." I'm sad they have to live like this. I'm sad about lack of executive functioning skills and life skills. I'm sad about no boxes. I'm glad we could minister to one of the least of these and to notice an answered prayer.
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