Building code violations that retired teacher Anne Glancey couldn’t afford to repair were amounting to an average of $3,000 every single day. She lived a very quiet, reclusive life without any friends or family to count on for help. A young neighbor couple, Kristin and Adam Polhemus, decided to step in to take on the project of fixing Glancey’s home.
The couple moved into the home next to Glacey five years before learning of her predicament. As a friendship formed, they noticed that she would avoid talking about the needed repairs and her lack of resources. The deteriorating home was unpleasant to look at due to old paint, a rusted car on the property, and overgrown grass. Hamilton Township informed Glancey in a letter that they would add a $1,000 fine per violation for each day that that she was found in violation.
A heartwarming gesture came as a surprise to Glancey as the noticed the couple outside one day doing a few repairs around her home. Her childhood home was slowly transformed throughout the summer of 2016 as the couple worked with other volunteers to divide the labor. Each weekend a group would come to the home to mow grass, scrape off old paint, repair damage, and eventually repaint the exterior of the home. The old rusty Plymouth was also removed from her property to settle all of the violations.
Anne embraced the help from her new friends instead of living in isolation from the world. Her quiet weekends were replaced with friendly conversations as she offered guests homemade carrot cake and orange juice for their troubles. Not only did Hamilton Township decide to erase the expensive violations, Anne was able to avoid paying up to $15,000 for professional repairs to the home.
