Cindy. (Or..... Melvin to the rescue!)

Back in 2004, with Hurricane Ivan bearing down on Fairhope, Melvin made a flying trip to the Columbus, MS, Lowe's to fill his truck up with plywood (which was completely sold out here on the coast) and supplies, and headed south to help us secure our home. Our dear friend, Cindy, also needed some assistance, so we threw our needs together and worked on both houses as a group. At the end of the long day, Melvin basically told us that we could stay and ride it out if we wanted to, but the children were heading north with him. So, we loaded up the girls and they rode home in the truck with him. Early the next morning, when Ivan was at it's strongest and bearing down on the Alabama coast, we gave in and evacuated as well. But, both houses survived just fine, even though the eye passed directly over Fairhope.

Well, that day formed a tight bond between her & Melvin. They just instantly loved each other, and kept up with each other all the time. Cindy was on the way to Birmingham to spend Christmas with her family when we called to tell her that Melvin had died. She was as devastated as anyone, I think. She left her family's Christmas, and drove to Starkville for the funeral. And, she did exactly what Melvin would have wanted - she came in jeans, because otherwise he would not have known it was her.

She found an email from a home-repair issue, and has shared it.

From Cindy:

Here's one of the conversations via email with your Dad. He was never short on words and always made time to help.

Dearest Melvin,

I'm sure you remember being our hero and assisting us with boarding up our homes. One of the many things I asked for advice on was the rotting around the bottoms of our doors . I remembered you saying to cut away the rotten area
and replace. Well, I have removed the rotten pieces. I need further advice on replacement of the wood, where to get, etc. Hope you are doing well! Thanks in advance!!!

Melvin's response:

Cindy, you need to go by Lowe's or building store and buy a stick of Brickmold molding. That is the outside-most piece that goes up against the brick and just cut a piece of it to fit as needed. I normally replace the door frame part first, and then cut the brick mold to be about a foot above the other piece. That gives it room to give strength to the ddor frame patch. The building supply store should have a piece of the door frame board and it can be cut to fit. The tricky part is to get it looking right with the rest of the part above. To do that, I use shims (about a dollar or two for a pack. They are are wedges that you can slide in the big end on one, and then slide in the little end on the next one in order to get a flat piece just the right thickness to hold it into place.

I have also been known to use a prybar to hold it just right for nailing and then letting the brickmold hold it solidly into place. The door frame will have to be cut at at angle at the bottom and slid into place. A good dose of construction adhesive (Liquid Nails or my favortie, F_26, will lock everything together. Then you prime really well, caulk after priming, and then one or two good coats of paint. I cheat a lot, whenever I replace a door frame, I save all of the parts and use them for the next repairs until I run out. That door frame part may run $30, to buy, but without a good table saw and really good lumber, it is hard to make. I would rather buy. The metal door threshold will probably have some staples holding the frame together, u just take a chisel or plyers and jerk them out, clean the bottom and then slide in the door frame part. I hope you saved the pieces that you took out, if so, use them for a pattern. When you get through with this one, go repaint all of the other ones on the house to keep from having to do them. It looks like you have done a lot of the work, I usually spend about 30 or 45 minutes to do all of it, but then, I do a lot of them, and keep everything on the truck. If I write a letter and do the work, you would expect a bill of about 150 for it if I was in a good mood and a friend, I put the screws to a guy last week who demanded it be done in 105 index weather with it having to be done one afternoow with the sun on me. If you have a question while you are doing it, just call me. Good luck, hope all are well.

Mother, currently 95 and less that three weeks from 96, is having problems accepting that her 23 year old cat has stopped eating and is about to die. Kinda hard to explain old age and death to a person of her age that just doesn't think you took the cat to the right Vet. Wish me luck.

Melvin

(I have to admit that it had not really occurred to me that someone might have an email from Dad that she would be willing to share. I've yet to make it all the way through this one without getting choked up, because it is just so Dad. My favorite lines are his mention of "F-26" and his discussion of Granny's cat. Dad's love of F-26 and his relationship with cats deserve to be posts of their own...I'll add them to the list of topics I have still to cover. tlm)