TWILIGHT WISH
With new heater from nonprofit and HVAC firm, 93-year-old can stay in family home
Helen Merico is now safe and sound — and warm — in the home she’s lived in since the 1950s.
That’s a big change from the past two years, and it happened thanks to a number of people looking out for her, including her family, a county officer, a local HVAC company, and a Doylestown-based foundation that made her wish come true.
“I love it. I think it’s fabulous what they’re doing for me,” said Helen, who is 93 years old.
Helen lives on Rose Lane in Hatfield with her son Allen and granddaughter Carin in the house that she and husband Frank moved into in 1956, and where they raised their four children.
In late 2017, the heater that had kept the home warm since
it was built finally broke down, and the family tried to make do as they looked for a way to fix or replace it.
“I had space heaters, and I tried to pull the plug out of the space heater, and it turned around and I fell down, and I’ve been falling ever since. But I’m OK now — I don’t fall anymore,” Helen said.
The family made do with space heaters in several rooms, but the power cords were a tripping hazard, and the rest of the house was without heat, until a timely visit from Charmaine Ijeoma, a homeless veterans outreach officer with the Montgomery County Veterans Affairs Office.
“When I got here, they were saying that the furnace was broken and not quite repairable, because it’s been here since the house was built, and the last time it was worked on was from 1972 to 1978,” Ijeoma said.
“Mrs. Merico is the surviving spouse of a veteran who was a P.O.W in the Battle of the Bulge, in World War II, and he died as a result of his injuries from World War II, so I felt that Mrs. Merico was a great candidate for a furnace,” she said.
Helen and her family still have photos of her husband Frank, in his U.S. Army private’s uniform, on display in the house, next to a scrapbook of telegrams he sent from the battlefields of Europe, and a flag flown at his funeral.
When Ijeoma visited to try to sign Helen up for pensions that her husband’s
service qualified her, Ijeoma decided to make a connection with Twilight Wish, a Doylestown-based nonprofit that helps make seniors’ wishes come true.
“Last year we granted over 200 wishes. Not all of them are personal needs: we do experience wishes too — it could be anything from taking a hot air balloon ride, to reliving something one more time, or a reunion with someone you haven’t seen in a long time,” said Michelle Bowren, Director of Wish Management for Twilight Wish.
The nonprofit contacted All Seasons Comfort Control, a Warminster-based HVAC company that had
helped the nonprofit on smaller projects, and company owner and general manager Chris Long said once he saw the decades-old furnace in the basement, he decided the company had to help.
“We’ve worked with several different foundations over the past several years, and said ‘OK, let’s take a look at it, and see if we can help.’ It’s a perfect project, right within what we do every day,” he said.
What did he see on that first visit? “A house that needed heat, and someone very deserving of a heater. Every day, we’re here to give someone heat, and when someone needs extra help,
we’re happy to do it,” Long said.
During a frigid week in late January, Long and his team installed a brand-new American Standard heating unit in the basement of the Merico home, and took out the old one for recycling, all free of charge thanks to the company and the nonprofit.
“We were very, very busy that week. We had about 300 phone calls a day from people who had no heat, so we were on the busy side, but that’s what we do,” said Long.
“She did get to the top of the list, especially when we heard she was without heat for so long. We wanted to be able to help her out,” he said.
Their new heater should last at least 20 years, Long said, and require just checkups, and now the Merico family has put away all of those space heater that could have caused Helen to trip. Allan said his mother was hospitalized for five days for a broken hip caused by one fall, but has recovered well.
On Thursday afternoon, the team who made it all possible stopped by Helen’s house to give her a certificate from the nonprofit saying her wish had been granted, and a badge saying the same. Bowren wore a similar badge, except hers said “We grant wishes.”
“You have maintained
an inspiring and uplifting spirit, and we are just happy we were able to make your wish come true,” said Bowren.
“We would love for you to inspire others to donate, especially to our senior citizens,” she said.
Helen and her family said they were grateful for all of the support, and Helen joked that the rest of the neighborhood should be glad too.
“I’d love to stay in my home. I look out the window, and I told the neighbors, ‘I may be nosy, and you see me through the window, but when something happens, I’m the first one to call 911,’” Helen said.