Lawrence moved to the region in 1978 from Cleveland, Ohio, where he worked as a telephone installer. He relocated to get away from the harsh winters. Lawrence enjoys living in the Pacific Northwest and is not bothered by the cloudy weather. He adds, “I’m more optimistic. When people say, ‘The sun’s not shining,’ I tell them the sun’s shining every day if you look past the clouds. That’s what life is about.”
After moving, he continued working in the field, designing high‑capacity circuits and completing central office inventory. During the last 12 years of his career with the phone company, he traveled across the country to take inventory of equipment in central offices and remote locations, including mountain sites and climate‑controlled vaults buried underground.
Lawrence has two children, both living in Washington. His son has worked in the development of specialized medicines, and his daughter graduated college with honors in language studies, taught English in Japan through the JET Program, and now raises her two young sons.
In retirement, Lawrence spends much of his time helping other people. He assists friends and family with car repairs and household projects such as small electrical work, plumbing, and drywall. When he is unable to help, he tries to refer people to someone who can. He sees this as a way to continue using the skills he developed throughout his career.
In addition to volunteering, Lawrence bakes cakes in his spare time. He runs a small home‑based baking operation from his basement, where he built a workspace with a sink, refrigerator, and oven. Some of his specialties are rum cake, orange liqueur cake, piña colada cake, and a banana split cake made with multiple layers and icings.
While Lawrence has an active lifestyle and many hobbies, ongoing issues with his right knee made it difficult for him to walk up and down stairs and maintain his balance. This made accessing his front door more difficult and led him to Habitat SKKC. He has visited Habitat stores for many years to buy materials for his many projects, but though he had long been familiar with Habitat SKKC’s work, he had never used our services until recently.
Through Habitat’s repair program, the team built him a ramp, and additional repairs were completed, including replacing leaking plumbing between his toilet and the main vertical stack and replacing the deck boards and the front steps of the “fixer‑upper” Lawrence purchased nearly 30 years ago. The ramp construction took approximately two weeks. Never one to sit by while others work, Lawrence assisted with parts of the project. While the repair team worked at his house, he prepared meals for them, including barbecue ribs, chicken, salads, and baked items, as a way of thanking them.
Over the years, he completed extensive repairs himself, including removing debris, replacing flooring affected by dry rot, refinishing floors, repairing rim joists, installing drainage, and rebuilding structural elements. He described the Habitat repairs as “A difficult job. I was trying to figure out ways to do it, but it was not something I wanted to tackle, and I thought Habitat will assist me with that.”
The repairs to Lawrence’s home reduced his stress and improved accessibility. He has since built a handrail for a neighbor facing similar challenges. He sees the repairs as beneficial for his future as his knee issues continue. He doesn’t only think about his own life, but those of his friends and neighbors who have difficulty using the stairs. He adds, “The ramp has made me feel a lot more comfortable when people come to visit.”
