Paul and Gail are moved into their apartment in Chicago (see previous post for address).\u00c2\u00a0They arrived shortly before noon on Sunday 11\/1\/2009 and a large group of family and friends\u00c2\u00a0moved Paul and Gail into their apartment. They will\u00c2\u00a0 take the next week or two to\u00c2\u00a0settle in and make everything just the way they want it.<\/p>\n
There are so many people to thank in conjunction with this event; they are listed below in no particular order. If I missed anyone,\u00c2\u00a0I apologize. So many people offered to help that it’s nearly impossible to keep track of them all! Even if your help was not needed at this specific time, the offer alone meant a lot to\u00c2\u00a0us all.<\/p>\n
Some of you contributed money to the Paul Bergren Family Fund. The money contributed went a long way in making the apartment a beautiful, clean, and safe place for Paul and Gail to move into.<\/p>\n
Some of you contributed by buying or contributing decorative items, paint, food, and\/or paper goods. There is nothing like the small touches to really make a place feel like home.\u00c2\u00a0Also, having some essentials in the pantry and fridge so they did not have to head right out to the store was a great contribution.<\/p>\n
Some of you came and worked on the cleaning, paintin,g and renovating of the apartment. What a transformation you helped to complete!\u00c2\u00a0You were instrumental in\u00c2\u00a0making the apartment a really nice place to live.<\/p>\n
Some of you helped with the move itself. Everyone on the Wisconsin end helped for the last\u00c2\u00a0month-and-a-half to go through and pack up everything that was coming with Paul and Gail to Chicago. They also had the rented trailer packed and ready to go when Glen and I arrived to make the move back to Chicago. Everyone on the Chicago\u00c2\u00a0end helped unload everything into the apartment and get things into place.<\/p>\n
Here are all of\u00c2\u00a0the folks who contributed in one or more of the ways described above. Bruce, Al, Shane & Julie, Wade, Louisa,\u00c2\u00a0Hunter, Autumn, Paige, Nathan, Logan, Sarah, Chuck,\u00c2\u00a0David, Mike & Barb, Bonnie, Mary Lou, Kelly & Jason, Paulette, Charmaine, Holly, Donnia, Sarah,\u00c2\u00a0Judy, Matt, Sean, Bill, Janet, Jimmy, Michael,\u00c2\u00a0Brent and his helper, Reddo & Kim, Mary, Robin, Mrs. Sifner (her prayers are the best medicine),\u00c2\u00a0Ginnie, Nick, Kevin, Joe Wop, Dave,\u00c2\u00a0and Joe Sly.<\/p>\n
There are\u00c2\u00a0a few \u00c2\u00a0people whom I want to thank individually for their contributions:<\/p>\n
Glen Miller. Glen drove to Wisconsin on Saturday morning, leaving his house at around 4:30am to pick me up and drive to Paul & Gail’s house in Wisconsin. We arrived at around noon and around 1:oopm we had the trailer hooked up to his truck and he drove from Paul & Gail’s to his hunting home about a hour away.\u00c2\u00a0Sunday morning at 4:15am he\u00c2\u00a0 drove back to Chicago and upon arriving around noon proceeded to help get the trailer, his truck and Paul\/Gail’s car unloaded.<\/p>\n
Glen, thanks for everything, you are truly a great friend. Your help with the move was so very important. You came through in a big way\u00c2\u00a0even with the sore back\/ribs from your fall the night before we left for Wisconsin. The night at your hunting house and the next morning was so much fun, I can’t remember the last time I laughed that hard.<\/p>\n
My wife Victoria. Vickie went to the apartment nearly every day for\u00c2\u00a03 weeks. The first week, she was not working, so every morning by 6:00am she was headed over to the apartment\u00c2\u00a0and performed the initial heavy duty cleaning that the apartment so badly needed.\u00c2\u00a0Then over the next 2 weeks as the renovation work was being done,\u00c2\u00a0there she was each and every day after work and\u00c2\u00a0in the morning on the weekend cleaning,\u00c2\u00a0organizing, painting, running out to buy needed items and helping in any way she could.\u00c2\u00a0Her willingness to give of herself and her time\u00c2\u00a0was truly a wonderful thing to experience first hand.<\/p>\n
Victoria, you are the most giving and generous person\u00c2\u00a0I have ever known. You are my friend and the love of my life.\u00c2\u00a0Day after day,\u00c2\u00a0you teach me\u00c2\u00a0how to be a better person.\u00c2\u00a0You are truly an amazing person and I am lucky to have\u00c2\u00a0you want me as\u00c2\u00a0your husband.<\/p>\n
Lastly, Henry (Hank) Rasinskis.\u00c2\u00a0Hank\u00c2\u00a0& Ginnie made a tremendously generous donation to the Paul Bergren Family Fund. Then all Hank proceeded to do was perform an unbelievable renovation of the apartment. Every day for two\u00c2\u00a0weeks Hank went to the apartment and worked his ass off. He shopped with me (we were the perfect gay couple) and helped select everything needed for the renovation. He took down a drop ceiling in the kitchen and hallway.\u00c2\u00a0He ripped open the bedroom wall and installed a pocket door.\u00c2\u00a0He installed a new front screen door, replacing the old door that wouldn’t\u00c2\u00a0completely close. He patched all the ugly spots on kitchen ceiling and all the walls throughout the apartment. He removed all the old light fixtures and replaced them with new ceiling fan\u00c2\u00a0light fixtures. he replaced all the old 2 prong electric outlets with new 3 prong outlets and also replaced the old light switches. He replaced the front stairway light with a new motion sensor light. He pulled down ceiling tiles throughout the apartment for painting and replaced them after the painting was done. He lined up his niece’s husband (a professional carpet installer) and helped professionally lay new carpet in the\u00c2\u00a0 living room and 2 bedrooms. He replaced a broken and leaking pipe under the kitchen sink. He painted, hammered, sawed, screwed,\u00c2\u00a0secured\u00c2\u00a0and took care of\u00c2\u00a0every little and big thing that needed to be done.<\/p>\n
Hank, on behalf of Paul & Gail, Vickie, my sisters and all our families,\u00c2\u00a0I want to thank you\u00c2\u00a0for all that you have done for Paul.\u00c2\u00a0Your generosity is so overwhelming,\u00c2\u00a0I am afraid\u00c2\u00a0I will never\u00c2\u00a0be able to repay the debt you are owed. You are truly\u00c2\u00a0heaven sent\u00c2\u00a0and we all love you. You and your family will always be remembered in our\u00c2\u00a0prayers.\u00c2\u00a0If you or your family are ever in need of anything, we are here to help.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Paul and Gail are moved into their apartment in Chicago (see previous post for address).\u00c2\u00a0They arrived shortly before noon on Sunday 11\/1\/2009 and a large group of family and friends\u00c2\u00a0moved Paul and Gail into their apartment. They will\u00c2\u00a0 take the next week or two to\u00c2\u00a0settle in and make everything just the way they want it. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulbergren.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulbergren.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulbergren.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulbergren.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulbergren.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulbergren.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulbergren.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48\/revisions\/51"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulbergren.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulbergren.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulbergren.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}