Sanmogam Pillay smiled proudly as his wife, Rajmani, wheeled him outside their Kent home on the East Hill last week to see the new wheelchair ramp under construction by volunteers.
Pillay, 59, had suffered a stroke during open-heart surgery two years ago. It became a struggle for his wife and a caretaker to get him in and out of the house for appointments.
That’s when employees from Lowe’s Home Improvement, where Pillay worked prior to his stroke, decided to help out.
Marie Parker, the human resources manager at the Lowe’s store along Pacific Highway in Kent, said she came up with the idea to build a wheelchair ramp for Pillay after a phone call from his wife.
“She called me and was crying because she didn’t know what to do and could not transport him to appointments,” Parker said as she helped complete a four-day project last week to build the ramp. “We needed to build this for him. It was hard work, but it was for a good cause.”
More than a dozen Lowe’s employees from stores in Kent, Tukwila, Auburn, Federal Way, Renton and Bellevue donated their time and labor to construct a deck, wheelchair ramp and sidewalk that Pillay can use to easily get in and out of his house. The ramp and sidewalk cover about 100 feet from the back sliding door to the front driveway.
Lowe’s donated all of the supplies at a cost of about $2,000. The labor was worth at least another $2,000, according to store employees.
“It will be much better,” said Kamal Pillay about the ramp for his father. “I’m emotionally touched by the employees of this all-volunteer group.”
Sanmogam Pillay worked 11 years at Lowe’s stores in Tukwila and Kent. Before his wife wheeled him outside the house to look at the construction of the ramp and for a photo to be taken, he had one request.
“He wanted to put a Lowe’s vest on,” Parker said.
The workers spent much of one day in the rain. The weather dried out the next day when they poured the cement for the actual ramp. Crews used a wheelbarrow to transport the cement from the front of the house to the back.
Kamal Pillay wanted the local newspaper to know about the story to help show the family’s thanks for the work by the store employees and the donated materials.
“I thought this is a story people should know about,” Kamal Pillay said.
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