Chapter 20

We’d made good progress on our new house and were getting to the finishing stages of the outside. We still needed to get the roof shingles on and then we could start to work on the inside. One morning we were surprised to see a whole flotilla of boats coming up the channel towards our island. When they arrived we discovered we had almost every able bodied person in the community. Leading the group were Elizabeth and Constable Ron.

“We felt we needed to do something to show our gratitude to you,” Elizabeth said to me, “so we decided to bring out a work crew to help.” I hugged Elizabeth and told her how much we appreciated it. While Elizabeth and I were hugging one another, Ron was busy organizing the crew, assigning tasks to various individuals and getting volunteers to help with each task. Not to be left out, Elizabeth got some of the ladies busy getting the lunch organized and making sure there was plenty of cold water available.

Lunch time came and the mountain of food that had been laid out soon disappeared as everyone ate their fill. Wasn’t long after lunch that Ron was trying to get the crews reassembled and back at work. About mid-afternoon, the supply boat arrived with a couple of the largest barbeque grills I’ve ever seen on the deck. Willing hands soon had them unloaded along with a number of large cooler chests. It wasn’t long before I could smell the charcoal burning and could see the ladies getting ready for supper.

As I stood there watching, Jennifer came up and stood beside me looking at what was going on. “Wally, did you know about this?” she asked.

“No, I’m as surprised as you are,” I replied. “I wonder who decided to do this?”

“I’ll bet you any money that it was Elizabeth. Since she sees almost everyone at one time or another in the store, it would be easy to see if folks thought it was a good idea. I’m sure that if we checked, we’d find there is a ‘committee’ that ran this and I bet I know who would be on that committee. Let’s see...” and Jennifer ticked off on her fingers as she named about 7 of the ladies in the community. “Those 7 plus Elizabeth and Helen would be the core of the group. I’ll bet she managed to twist the arms of a bunch of other folks to do something specific.”

I had to agree with her. “I’m going to find Elizabeth and talk to her. Coming with me?” Jennifer smiled, took my hand and off we went.

As expected, when we confronted Elizabeth, she admitted the idea was hers. “This started out to be a simple gesture of thanks to you Wally for all you’ve done for everyone in the community. As I talked to a few people the idea seemed to take on a life of its own. Someone – I don’t know who – suggested that you might like a bit of help finishing up your new home. Suddenly I found we were going to have a ‘house raising’ like the early folks used to do with a barn. Before I knew it, I had so many offers I had to have help keeping track of things.

“Ron heard what was going on and offered to help organizing the work crews and he and a couple of other guys have made sure that all the menfolk knew what they were going to do and Helen and I did the same with the ladies. Jerry offered to bring the barbeques and steaks over and help with the cooking.

“So there you have it. Our version of a ‘house raising’. Elizabeth folded her hands in front of her lap and smiled.

Jennifer grabbed her and hugged her for all she was worth. “I knew you’d be the guilty party. It is such a wonderful surprise.”

Suppertime rolled around and the aroma of grilling steaks was making many a mouth water in anticipation. Finally Ron called a halt to the day’s events. He got the crew ‘leaders’ together to see what was left to do and between them they agreed on a list of things left to be done.

While Ron was getting the list completed, Elizabeth was getting supper served. Jerry turned out to be a wonderful barbeque chef and everyone found a steak that was done just the way they liked it. As soon as everyone had their plate filled and had found a place to sit, I decided I needed to say thanks.

“Folks, Jennifer and I are overwhelmed by your kindness and generosity. I don’t know how I can ever repay you...” Elizabeth jumped in and stopped me.