Patricia Harrelson

Cindy broke her toe in June and her ankle in July. Not surprisingly, she was down in the dumps by August, having worn strange foot devices all summer that prevented driving, swimming, or even walking very well. On a particularly bad day, I asked her if there was something we could do to make her feel a little better.

“I want to re-arrange my office,” she said.

Well that seemed pretty easy. I could help her move the furniture around, but then she added that she wanted to do a deep cleaning. Well OK, but I was working out of the house a lot, so she would have to do small things and then I could help with the bigger tasks when I got home.

She dove in with gusto and soon the living room was filling with piles of stuff as she cleared off book cases and started dusting and vacuuming. Then when I came home last Wednesday after working all day at the college followed by 2 hours with my writers group, she greeted me with, “I want to paint my office.”

I was tired; I was cranky; I did not meet her excitement with anything like enthusiasm, but after a good night’s sleep I rallied. By that time, she had enlisted Becky to help, but she nevertheless accepted my belated offer to assist.
We emptied the office of furniture, all but the desk, and spent the weekend painting. By Monday night, we were moving furniture on location and hooking up the electronics. The room looks great and Cindy is the happiest I’ve seen her since she was throwing money on me in our state room on the trip to Alaska.

Here are some pictures of her sunny, deeply cleaned, reorganized, freshly painted office: