Handyman blues

I know I should call this handyperson blues, but the fact is that not too many women can lift 56 pounds, and that's where my troubles began.

I needed a new lawn mower. At the store, someone wheeled the box past the cashier for me, then muscled it into the trunk. I knew I would need help getting that heavy box back out. I have nice neighbours, but nobody is in a position to do heavy lifting for me. At home, I called the same handyman service I've used before. It used to be run by the local senior centre. I'd explain what I needed to the coordinator, she would contact a local adult or student from her roster, and it would all get done in a day or two. But the senior centre has been taken over by a large community service organization now. I had to talk to an intake coordinator, who said she would pass on my request to the coordinator, who would call me back within a week! No one ever called back. So I tried another local community centre with a handyman service. This time I got to speak directly to the handyman, who said he would come the next day. He never showed up.

I guess the job was too small to be worth anyone's while, and that's annoying enough, but what's really galling is that they can't even be bothered to say so. They're telling seniors that our needs are too petty to deal with. But we need those small jobs done so that we can keep living independently in our homes. And think how easy it would be to run this kind of service. All they have to do is to build up a roster of local handymen, maybe even handypersons, and students, who agree to be on call for occasional small jobs. It's a small time commitment for the handyman, and not much work for the community agency. But it would go a long way toward treating seniors with dignity.