In the summer of 2012 my partner and I moved across the country to southern Ohio for a job. After driving across the country for 7 days, my partner and I were very happy to finally arrive at our new home. When we showed up at the house however, we discovered that it was inhabited by hoarders. And not just “I have to much clutter around” type people, the ones who stopped cleaning (if they ever cleaned) several years ago. There was a thick coat of dog hair on everything. Weird smears across the walls. Giant stains under the carpets that looked like blood. Insect nests everywhere. Dirt, mold, rotting food filled the smell of the house. As you can imagine, we were both incredibly overwhelmed. We didn’t have any friends in the area and we were broke from moving so we couldn’t hire a professional cleaning team. I posted my angst on facebook, and Melissa immediately wrote to me asking what she could do. She offered to drive 5 hours from Michigan to help us clean. At first I said no, that felt like too big of a favor to ask, but after one day of cleaning and hardly making a dent, I said yes. She came right away. She brought cleaning supplies and a cheery attitude. She stayed all day long, helped us whip that house into shape, and then drove back home for another 5 hours. While of course I really appreciated her labor, it was her kindness that really lifted my spirits. She let me cry, kept me motivated to keep going, and just generally kept my mind off of the awfulness of the situation. I really think that without her, I would have thrown in the towel and given up on that second day. Thank you Lissa for your sweet spirit, loyalty, kindness.