Moving Father Aaron D’Amboise’s stepfather from Lewiston to Augusta.

12/29/2022

Council: 10019 - LEWISTON

Project Description:

In early December, Father Aaron D’Amboise contacted me about the possibility of getting some brother knights together to help move his stepfather, John, from 189 Ash Street in Lewiston to 44 Sewall Street in Augusta. Fr. Aaron’s mother was recently placed in a home in Lisbon, leaving John alone. By moving to Augusta, John would be near his two daughters that live in Augusta, making him much less lonely, with help from his daughters.
Fr. Aaron thought we could get some brother knights with pickup trucks and move John to Howell House in Augusta. I thought renting a U-Haul truck would be much better this time of year. On December 26, a U-Haul truck was reserved, and an email was sent to many brother knights in our council and others in Lewiston. Knowing that our age and physical conditions could make it difficult to get volunteers, we did not know how many knights would be able to help. Father’s plan was to get the Lewiston volunteers to load the truck and have the Augusta knights unload the truck into John’s new apartment on December 28th. The Lewiston knights showed up aplenty. Twelve men showed up and the move went very well. We loaded that U-Haul truck in just over an hour. The truck was FULL to the roof and to the back door. We also had to fill two SUVs with the remaining small stuff like clothes and pictures. At that point, Fr. Called Augusta to let them know we were on our way. The sad news was that only one brother knight was available from Augusta. John’s new apartment was on the second floor, (Thank God for them having an elevator!). Six knights from Lewiston decided to drive to Augusta and help unload.
It was very warm in the Howell House and snowing outdoors, making for a huge temperature change each time something was brought in. Sadly, the Augusta Sir knight had an episode, passed out and fell face first and laid on the floor for a long time, 911, was called and the sir knight was evaluated. The EMTs determined that he would not have to go to the hospital. They believed that the temperature differential and a low sugar episode may have been the cause. Because the brother knight lived in South China and was still not feeling well when we finished moving, we convinced him to let us drive him and his car back. Another Lewiston brother followed them to make sure he was okay.
This day was the perfect example of brother knights helping brother knights in need. Both the move and helping a fallen brother made us all proud to be knights. In all, there were 12 knights in Lewiston working for a combined time of 14 hours, 8 knights in Augusta for another 45 hours, combined. The U-Haul 15’ box truck and gas totaled $130. The comradery was priceless!

Surge report submitted by Bob Dumond, Holy Family Council 10019, Lewiston.