Twilight Wish Foundation

Bedridden 83 year old Sarah's dream comes true for an extreme makeover bedroom

Saturday, 3/31/07, it was Sarah's day to finally have her wish granted. Her wish was submitted by her friend and one of her caregivers, Ruth R., LSW with Abramson Center in January of 2006. It was to make over a room in the middle of the house into a bedroom for Sarah who was living in a very dark cold room in the back of the house. Twilight Wish first visited Sarah in March of 2006 during the original site visit. The home was in poor condition.

The floor in the room to be made over had a hole and it was questionable. Twilight Wish requested an expert give an opinion and it turned out that joists needed reinforcement before anything else could happen. Twilight Wish had some difficulty. We had a volunteer flooring company from New York agree to the work but at the last minute on the day they were scheduled to do the work, they no-showed. Then, a board member stepped in and asked a friend to do the work...much thanks to James Canale who paid for the carpeting and Jim Morris of Morris Contractors who did the flooring we were finally able to move ahead.

Sarah insisted on her favorite color from swatches she was shown even though we feared it may be too dark...the color was "Plum Blossom" found at Home Depot. The color of the carpet was a medium blue/grey. I found a gorgeous cream colored bedding package at Boscov's including a 300 count sheets/pillowcases, comforter, dust ruffle, and three decorator pillows. I showed them to Mary Forkin, designer extraordinaire...this is what she had to work with and pull altogether at the last moment. No easy feat. Wait till you see the artwork, pillows, curtains, decorator lamp, decorator chair, wall hangings, picture frames and other paraphernalia she picked out...incredible.

The crew for the working day included myself, Gene Petrucci, my sister, Mary Forkin (who pulled the design work altogether), three Amazing Members of Philadelphia Boy Scout Troop #303 including Mike Coleman, William Veasy and Shakoor Mathlin...and two of their Amazing Leaders, Robert Gallaway and Troy German. I am going to post pictures of the before and after. We worked from 9:15am straight through until 7pm with some lunch and then later some pizza and hot wings thanks to Mary. Cleaning windows, cleaning woodwork, painting gripper on the old paneling, painting primer on the ceiling and then painting the second coats of the paint...white on the ceiling and "plum blossom" on the walls. Mike became our premier "trim" guy. Troy and Gene took on the ceiling. Everyone contributed. No slackers. White on the woodwork. Painting on crumbling plaster...quite a feat that Shakoor and Gene took on and mastered.

The end result was astonishing. The Boy Scouts were amazed at the transformation and called it an "Extreme Makeover of the Room" and they witnessed Sarah's face when she saw it for the first time as she entered the room with her walker. Sarah sat in the new rocking chair donated by my brother, Joe Forkin, and wept while thanking us and praising God. She was so happy she called it a new house...her daughter reminded her it was a new room. Then, Boy Scout Mike asked if Mary would decorate his bedroom when he gets married. Gracie, Sarah's daughter and caregiver, and I were both fascinated with the new tranquility of the room. Everyone left very pleased at the amazing transformation and at the smile on Sarah's face.

Twilight Wish #753 was now completed.

posted by Twilight Godfather @ 5:50 PM