On Nov. 16, Mariette Hickey had a strong urge to head to downtown Sudbury and visit the Blue Door Soup Kitchen.
It's not that she was a stranger to the place. In fact, her son, David, spent 20 years volunteering at the soup kitchen before he drowned in 2005 in a swimming hole in Falconbridge. He was 42.
David had an enlarged pancreas and suffered from hypoglycemia as a child, which ultimately resulted in brain damage.
When he was seven, David pulled a pot of boiling water off the stove, causing severe burns to much of his body. He spend months in recovery. He was also diabetic and had serious vision loss in his later years.
None of that stopped David from becoming a cherished and valuable member of the soup kitchen. His autism, which limited his vocabulary to about 10 words, was accepted with open arms. He loved his job there, he loved the people, and they loved him, Mariette said. He was well-cared for, and he greeted everyone there with his “big, beautiful smile,” she said.
That's why she didn't think twice about her inclination to visit the soup kitchen last month. It turns out, there was a reason for it.
“Something told me to come here, I don't know what, I just knew I had to come here,” she said.
When she walked in, she learned the soup kitchen's dishwasher had just quit working. For most people, that wouldn't have any significant meaning. For Mariette, it meant the world.
That dishwasher was purchased by her family and donated to the soup kitchen in David's memory. David spent the majority of his volunteer time doing the dishes.
“I decided that day that I needed to do something about this,” she said.
She set out on a fundraising mission with the goal to raise $5,000. However, once she got the ball rolling, the money just started pouring in, she said. The final tally was $14,075.
Mariette and her family presented the money to the soup kitchen on Dec. 14 — David's birthday. He would have been 54.
“It came from people who knew David and who are concerned about the less fortunate in the community,” she said. “They wanted to support David and to keep his memory alive.
“It's a miracle. It will be 13 years in June since he died, and we are just so proud of him. Every day we think about him, and we know he's still in our lives everywhere we go.”
Mariette said she and her daughter woke up and wished David a happy birthday before heading over to the soup kitchen.
Bob Johnston, a member of the Blue Door Soup Kitchen's public relations committee, said both the fridge and the dishwasher were desperately needed. The old dishwasher, donated in David's name about 10 years ago, washed more than half a million dishes in its time.
“Everything that happened today was just meant to be,” Johnston said. “The memory of David Hickey will shine on through these new appliances. Without David's family, none of this would have happened.”
