Phyllis Thomas, Enterprise Editor

We arrive at Cricket Way at 10:15 a.m. We should have been there at 10:00 a.m., but we were a bit late ... shhh!

Our decorator, Sharon Lowe, is already here, and so, too, is the Azmart team.

Jacqueline Azan, managing director, brings with her Judy Armstrong, decorator/ merchandiser, and another Azmart employee, Jacques Young. They have already unloaded two huge boxes containing the most exquisite accessories - from comforters to lamps.

Immediately behind us comes a smiling Simone Mahabeer, Singer's brand manager - furniture. The truck with the furniture is on its way.

But Olga, she of tropical storm fame, who had issued threats the previous evening and had dumped a lot of rain on the country the night before, has us a bit nervous.

Although they say she was weaker, a menacing cloud looks down on us - as if on standby. We ignore it and turn our attention to what is happening on the ground.

The Nuneses - a family of 14 which includes Mr. and Mrs. Nunes, their two biological children and 10 foster children, along with Jacqueline and Judy - are gathered around the boxes. Jacqueline tells them how happy she is that her company could make a difference in their lives. She wishes them a merry Christmas - and the Azmart group is off again.

By now, huge raindrops are coming down and we scamper to the veranda to await the arrival of the Singer truck. Four of the Nuneses' younger foster children - Sugandi, age six; Jada, seven; Avion, five, and Grace, four - start to sing a lively hymn. These four are part of the children's choir at the Bible Truth Ministries International Church, where Mrs. Nunes is the preacher.

That song turns into a medley of catchy praise and worship songs that has Simone joining in. This reporter tries but is forced to abandon it when instead of musical notes, the frog came leaping out. Maybe it was the rainy weather?

Therapy for Stanley

As the Nunes quartet sing, in the background the sound of drilling is quite audible.

Stanley Blake is installing the curtain rods from Azmart in the bedroom. Stanley, a meticulous young man with an eye for detail, is careful that every nail, every painting is in place. No one would guess at the burden he carries inside.

Only two weeks before, Stanley lost his two-year-old daughter. Baby Roymona Blake was killed when she was allegedly crushed by a truck on Mahoe Drive in Three Miles. Three of Stanley's other children were hospitalised with broken limbs, arising out of that same accident.

Sharon Lowe brought him to work on the installation, not only because he is skilful at his trade, but also because she knows the work will be therapeutic.

Stanley tells us later that even with the pain of the death of his daughter and the injuries to his other children, he has to work.

"A lot of people need me," he says.

Back on the veranda, the younger children are smothering Simone with love; two of them are on her lap; a third shows how bright she is and lists all the food groups there are.

Then, the Singer truck is here.

"Wow!" one adult exclaimed as the first piece of furniture is taken down.

Time for work

The family is allowed to pose for a picture with Simone, whose time it was to tell them how happy Singer is to be on board and to touch their lives.

After that bit of formality, the Nuneses are banned from the work area, including the bedroom. Workmen from Singer bring out a fabulous Casa Grande queen bedroom set in shades of olive ash.

The pieces include the bed frame, dresser, night tables, chest of drawers and the Serta Superior Firm queen mattress and base.

The workmen assemble the furniture and Sharon prepares window scarves for the finishing touch to the window treatment.

Half an hour after the arrival of the furniture, the makeover is complete. The Nuneses are ushered to the door. Their hands cover their eyes. Their excitement mounts. Then they are told they could look at their new bedroom. Mr. Nunes gasps and leaps on to the bed, followed by Mrs. Nunes and the screaming children, including letter writer Shamala.

Other family members who are on hand for the event are delighted.

Well deserved

"Dem deserve it," Rosemarie Cunningham says. Rosemarie, a missionary from the Faith Miracle Church of God, Fletcher's Land, says she is Mrs. Nunes' spiritual mom. She has this reporter in a bear hug. "Praise the Lord. Dem deserve it. From last year dem give a man money ($10,000) to build a bed and you know, is just the other day 'im come back saying him going to make the bed, but she going to tek back the money."

And what is she going to do with it? Buy another bed? Buy more furniture? Absolutely not!

"I am going to use the money to put on a feast for the poor people of the community for Christmas," says a happy Mrs. Nunes.

Interior decorator Sharon Lowe is beaming, Singer's Simone, too. She wasn't going anywhere until the job was finished.

Olga has passed and the sky now seems to smile, because the sun is shining at its brightest. Its rays, however, cannot be beaming brighter than the happiness in Shamala's heart.