| Big hearts fill small house
Six days a week, David Scott drives a truck on the overnight shift, picking up garbage collected in Roxbury and Dorchester. Seven days a week, he's a single father to three boys; the youngest, Michael, has cerebral palsy and mild retardation. Until recently, 6-year-old Michael shared his father's bedroom in their small Brockton home. Michael would sleep while his dad worked the night shift. When Michael went to school in the morning, his father would take his place in bed, catching a few hours of sleep before his sons arrived home. The other two boys, Chris, 13, and Nicholas, 10, shared a second bedroom. Their lives are crazy, he acknowledges, and Michael's needs are many. There is a lot of "just running around to physical therapy appointments, occupational and speech therapy, to Children's Hospital; it just never ends," says Scott, 41.
You can find good contractor if you're diligent about references
A contractor offers to replace a roof or patch a driveway, asks for upfront money and then leaves, never to be seen again. Or disappears in the middle of the job. The mere thought of that kind of rip-off artist makes you want to put up with leaky faucets and drafty windows. You can find a credible contractor who can do a good job without taking you to the cleaners. Ask around. Word-of-mouth reference is one of the best ways to find a good fix-it person or contractor to do major remodeling work. In Hampton, Va., Melanie Paul used word-of-mouth recommendations to hire a handyman who is installing new kitchen cabinets for $5,000 less than the big-box stores and $2,000 less than the next lowest-bid handyman. She says he's polite and professional and communicates well.
Leaving home on the hill after 88 years
She savored it, set her alarm for 6:30 a.m., and went to bed inside the house on the hill for the final time. For years, she said the only way she'd leave her Mann Avenue home was feet first. But in the morning moving trucks would come. Men would load her furniture and drive away, leaving the big, white two-story sitting empty on the hill. This was her last night. At 88, Eulalia was walking away from the only home she'd ever known. It wouldn't be easy. Saying goodbye never was. Especially not for someone like Eulalia, who was born in a small bedroom in the house on the hill and never left. If it happened between Sept. 27, 1918, and July 28, 2007, Eulalia lived it, watched it or heard about it from the Mann Avenue home. Now, life would unfold somewhere else. She was moving out.
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