By Rita McInerney

Lizzie and Tom Easter’s cottage in Fairburn is warm and sturdy now, with a new dining room, modern bathroom, woodburning stoves and modern kitchen. All these creature comforts and many others for the elderly couple came about because Sister Marcella Meyer, C.S.J., had a good friend who enjoys doing for others, and faith in the generosity of Catholics in the metro Atlanta area.

This project of Christian caring was begun in April, 1985 by Sister Marcella with her companion and co-worker, Sister Roberta Joseph Sutton, C.S.J. Now it is just about complete. Last week when the Georgia Bulletin made a return trip to the Easters (the first visit was detailed in an article appearing in the issue of July 4, 1985), Sister Marcella’s good friend Winston Leverett was putting finishing touches on a wooden bin he had made for storing logs on the front porch.

Winston Leverett is a semi-retired carpenter, brick mason and woodworker to whom helping others is as necessary to his life as are his spiritual duties as a permanent deacon at St. Paul of the Cross Church. He is the man who transformed the Easters’ rundown cottage into a snug, weatherproof home. By this transformation, he and the two sisters of St. Joseph had brought more than physical warmth into the Easters’ lives. They have given them the comfort of friendship.

Lizzie Easter, although bent with painful arthritis, shows off her home with pleasure. Her husband Tom, of a quieter nature, greets visitors pleasantly from his chair on the new porch which Mr. Leverett built after tearing down the sagging entrance shed. The visitor notices that their greatly improved living conditions seem to have rejuvenated them.

When Sister Marcella decided that something should be done to help the Easters, her expectations were confined to bringing running water into the kitchen. There was neither water nor sanitary facilities. But once the water flowed from the spigot in the kitchen sink, other improvements followed. Mr. Leverett replaced the old plastic-covered windows with new glass and window frames. Next he took off the many layers of old carpet and linoleum from the kitchen floor, the front room where Tom Easter sleeps and from Lizzie’s bedroom. New tile flooring was put down, ceilings were replaced, the foundation shored up, roof replaced, insulation added. Mr. Leverett was the construction boss, the foreman, and the laborer. But not one to take all the credit, he said he “couldn’t have done it without the volunteers” who turned out on Saturdays to help.

When he mentioned the need for a kitchen stove to a friend, a new wood stove was delivered and installed. The bathroom was the only room in the house he didn’t do himself. A permit had to be obtained and a licensed plumber called in for this job.

Lizzie Easter’s special delight is the new dining room that opens off her remodeled kitchen. Mr. Leverett built this little room after tearing down an unused room with rotting floorboards hazardous to anyone who ventured in. Now this bright little room is as much Lizzie’s favored sitting room as the new porch is Mr. Tom’s when weather permits.

The reclaiming of the cottage is a bright example of the “preferential option for the poor” advocated in the bishop’s message on the economy just approved at the national conference of bishops meeting two weeks ago in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Leverett, who has a good knowledge of such costs as a self-employed home contractor, figures the work done on the cottage would have cost anywhere from $12,000 to $15,000. Thanks to contributions in cash and materials from parish conferences of the St. Vincent de Paul Society and private donors who couldn’t say “no” to Sister Marcella, and the labor of many “Saturday volunteers” from several parishes, the cost can’t be calculated. There is just no way to measure the amount of Christian love expended in the renovation project.

Since April, 1985, it’s been Mr. Leverett’s habit to spend three or four hours a day at the Easter house, sometimes, he said, a full day. “When I was feeling bad, I’d leave my other work and come down here and work. It makes you feel better to do something for others.”

Doing for others goes back a long way for the man who learned his trade from his grandfather. “I grew up with it,” he said. “When I was about eight I would go after school (the old E.A. Ware Elementary School) and pick up nails for him. It kept me out of devilment.”

His home-building and home repairing skills were utilized by Catholic Social Services when the agency received a grant from the Atlanta Regional Commission to train unemployed youth under the now defunct Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA). He trained the young men as his grandfather trained him. “I was strict. I didn’t want them wasting my time if they weren’t serious.” He followed the same guidelines when he trained young men in general home repairs for two summers in a program sponsored by Southern Bell. Some of them, he remembered, wrote him letters later, thanking him for his patience and training. He runs into them occasionally at the supply house he frequents. They tell him how much the training has meant in their lives.

He began helping the elderly on a broad scale when he volunteered to take charge of the rehabilitation project which Catholic Social Services sponsored for senior citizens trying to remain in their own homes. Years later, the elderly and the handicapped still call on him.

He and his wife of more than 50 years, Dorothy, work together. “I enjoy it, so does my wife. She gives me support, encourages me. I don’t know what I’d do without her.”

He is president of the St. Vincent de Paul parish conference at St. Paul of the Cross Church where he has been a member since the parish was established. His SVDP involvement grew out of his wife’s dedication to the society. She was one of the two original members of the parish conference. He is also a member of Council 4420 of the Knights of Columbus in East Point and has been a board member of Southwest Hospital for about 15 years.

A member of the first class of deacons ordained in the archdiocese in 1982, his duties as a deacon fulfill his need to share himself with this parish family on a spiritual level, and his generous use of his talents with hammer and saw allow him to be physically present for his brothers and sisters both within and beyond his parish boundaries.