On July 7, Reese Professional Cleaning Service received a phone call from a disabled woman who lives alone with her dog and three cats.
The kitchen was covered in pet waste, and other rooms looked even worse. It was a tough job, but we helped because it was the right thing to do.
The woman had a serious problem with dog and cat waste. It was causing an awful odor from the overflowing litter boxes; the kitchen floor was soiled with pet excrement; her bathroom was unsafe to use; and her bedroom was full of soiled clothing.
This job was almost one of the worst situations we could put our employees in. In fact, the woman had already told us she could not find any company that would help her. When we showed up to give the estimate, I had reservations myself.
But then I thought, “If we don’t help her, who will?” It was an example my own mother had set, and it was a lesson that’s always stuck with me.
When we were young, my sister watched three children every weekend. Then one of those weekends, their mother didn’t come home. My sister didn’t know what to do, but Mom said, “Bring them to our house.”
We couldn’t afford three more mouths to feed — we were living week to week, and mom was going to nursing school. But she said, “If we don’t help them, then who will?”
With Mom’s example in mind, we scheduled the job. On July 13, we put on our protective clothing and our odor-prevention masks and went to work. It took four of us six hours to complete that job, and we had to leave for air every hour. But it was worth it — and we all felt real good after that.
It’s just another example of our ability to serve our clients — and our willingness to go the extra mile to help our fellow human beings. At Reese, that’s something we believe the world could use a lot more of — and we like to practice what we preach.