Generosity fills senior with gratitude
Plumbing problem involved several approaches
A major plumbing job required in your home is the last thing you want to hear just before Christmas.
But Marie Atkinson, a retired senior living in Yarmouth, found herself in that situation a few weeks ago.
She called a plumber who had helped her out in the past at Bramac Plumbing & Heating.
Operations manager Tim Atkinson (no relation) arrived that afternoon to see what could be done. He says it quickly became apparent the job was a lot more than a plugged bathtub.
“We tried using our regular equipment and camerasnaking, and finally realized we couldn’t go any further,” he says.
Bramac’s owner, Curt Goudey, arrived and after discussing the situation, the plumbers decided on another course of action.
A call was placed to Nick Hurlburt of N-hurlburt-Excavating-ltd.
“Instead of cutting walls inside the house, I figured it was better to do the damage outside, easier to fix,” says Tim.
The contractors followed the line from where they knew it was in the driveway, digging until they got as close as they could to the house. Dwayne Robicheau, owner of Quickfalls Septic Services, was called to assist, with a second hose and a water jetter. Between power snaking, camera snaking, and other efforts, the men were finally able free the blockage on the same day the homeowner had called.
“We put everything back together and she’s been good ever since,” says Tim about the work.
During the job, Goudey knew the bill would be in the thousands and he gave Marie forewarning. When he saw her dismay, he told her she would be able to pay it off monthly and saw that was a relief to her.
But afterwards, as the men worked into the evening, they talked.
They knew Marie was concerned about how much it was going to cost. “It was either we do it for nothing, or leave her in a mess,” says Atkinson. "We just couldn’t do that. No. So we fixed it.”
When he totalled the invoice for the work done by all three contractors, the bill was close to $3,000. On the bottom of the invoice he showed a negative and wrote “Merry Christmas from everyone.”
Marie, who has contributed to the community in the past and started the Care Clown program that ran at the Yarmouth Regional Hospital for several years, says it was a “shocker” when they told her what they were going to do.
“It just gives me goosebumps. It would have been a difficult Christmas. They’ve gone way out of their way to help me," she says. “They’ve been awesome, totally awesome.”
Tim says their company typically tries to help a family at Christmastime and that this year it was a little different with COVID.
“We’d rather reward a customer that uses us on a regular basis as opposed to having nominations for families that need work done. It’s kind of like let’s reward the people that have got us where we are today.”
When asked for a comment, Nick Hurlburt just smiled. “Merry Christmas,” he said.
“It just gives me goosebumps. It would have been a difficult Christmas.” Marie Atkinson Homeowner