The
other day we were home for the day and relaxing a little before going to bed
when the phone rang. It was Sisters Brown
& Pastores over in zone 2 and they were frantic.
"Our
kitchen sink is overflowing! What should
we do?"
"Well,
first you need to turn the water off," I calmly replied.
"No,
no. The water is off. It's coming up through the drain!"
"And
now it's flowing over the front of the cabinets like Niagara
Falls," I said, taking it to the logical
conclusion.
"Yes,
and it's hot. What should we do?"
"Wait,
did I understand you to say that the water is hot?"
"Yes. What should we do?"
"Okay,
here's what you do. Get all of your
stuff off the floor. Then call the
building supervisor and get ready to leave.
Then call me back and tell me what the super said and I'll tell you
where you are going."
"Thank
you so much, Elder Shaw. We knew that
you would know just what to do. You
really are the greatest," They
gushed.
Okay,
I will admit that I made up that last part, but I am sure that is what they
were thinking. Meanwhile, I am thinking,
"What on earth would cause hot water to come up the drain pipe into their
kitchen sink? Maybe a bathtub upstairs
being drained and there is a plug in the drain downstream from where the two
pipes come together."
I
couldn't spend too much time pondering this curiosity. I had to find somewhere to put a pair of
homeless sisters. Looking at the MAG
(mission at a glance) I concluded that the best place for them was with the
sisters over on Ozone Avenue
in Cedar Grove. I then called the zone
leaders. No answer. I then called the mission office person in
charge of apartment paperwork. No
answer. Well, that leaves me in complete
charge.
The
phone rang and it was my mermaid sisters who told me the water was still
flowing and there was a lot of steam because the water was hot. They also said they had been able to reach
the supervisor who said he would be over in the morning to take a look at
it. What!?! I guess after hurricane Sandy
the thought of an apartment full of water to ceiling doesn't bother these
people. I said, "That's it. Load up what you need and head over to stay
at least tonight with Sisters Taylor and Harvey."
At
least the Ozone apartment is still in zone 2.
I knew why they were so agreeable with this plan. They were thinking, "Hot dog! A slumber party!"
A
few minutes later they called again to say the fire department and police had
arrived. It seems that their apartment
was not the only one being flooded and someone had called 911. They said that so far, the fire department
had no idea what to do. I responded,
"Go to Ozone!"
A
couple of days later we visited with Sisters Brown & Pastores at the NJMM Christmas
conference. They said they had only
stayed one night over on Ozone and that they had been told the problem had been
a clogged pipe but that no one had explained why there had been so much hot
water. Their apartment is drying out but
the mission supplied carpet is a total loss, which is okay since storage is
overflowing with excess everything, including excess carpet. The sisters tossed the water logged and
stinking carpet into the apartment dumpster.
I guess I wasn't too surprised to hear that. We have some tough sisters in the NJMM. Now all we have to do is haul a carpet from
storage over there. Maybe next week.
This
is just one example of the calls for help we receive. Others have included the following:
"Our
heater is not working and we are freezing."
"Our
air conditioner is not working and we are cooking."
"We
have bed bugs. Please help us."
"We
have roaches. Please help us."
"The
trunk on our car won't close."
"Our
dryer has stopped working."
"We
have a leak under the sink."
First snow out our front window.
First snow out our kitchen window.
Three Shaws
David Shaw took this shot of New York City late one evening as we were returning from a day in The City. It looks better from New Jersey than when you are over there.
