Battling cancer, used to fixing things himself, man brought to tears by surprise from Home Depot workers



ARNOLD, Missouri -- A Home Depot customer was in tears after a couple of big surprises from employees at a store in Missouri.

Jim Sansone, of Arnold, Missouri is used to fixing things himself. He's a long-time Teamster, diagnosed with cancer just before his retirement.

His house recently suffered wind damage -- and he was quite worried about whether he could make the repairs. To calm his concerns, his girlfriend reminded him that "the Lord works in mysterious ways.”

Sansone says that's never been more true.

Sansone needed to replace a fascia that had blown off his roof line, and it needed to be done before rain came on Wednesday, April 6th in order to prevent further damage to the room.

Sansone visited the Arnold, Missouri Home Depot store, and Store Manager Jim Conley sent out two employees to do the job -- sensing this was a project Sansone couldn't do himself.

Sansone has pancreatic cancer.

“He was on chemo.  He had the shakes. He would fall down periodically. Right then, we knew we had to get somebody out there for him," Conley said.

“Sometimes little fixes are all it takes to make people really happy,” said Andy Gerringer, Home Depot employee.

Gerringer and Davilla Peifer put the fascia that had blown off back into place to at least hold Sansone through the next few rounds of storms.

A new piece had to be custom ordered.

“No big deal … 20 minutes (was all it took),” Peifer said.

But for Sansone, those 20 minutes were a big, big deal.

“I feel it in my heart.  I know that in my heart and in my head, there are good people in this world,” Sansone said.

Sansone offered to pay and even feed the Home Depot employees some fresh trout he’d caught recently.

“They shook my hand and  said ‘have a nice day, Jim' and went back to work.   I just couldn’t believe it,” Sansone said.

A day later came bigger news.  There was a surprise visit from another member of the Home Depot team who told Sansone Home Depot would replace all his fascia and inspect his home for any other damage.

“I don’t know what to say. I appreciate it.  Thank you so very much," Sansone said.

Sansone's nephew posted a "thank you" on Facebook saying: “This little gesture by Home Depot might not have cost them a drop in a bucket, but it meant a lot to my family.”

That's how the word got out.

Conley said he was then getting messages from Home Depot employees across the country -- saying “way to go.”

And while the Home Depot employees who helped him would not accept any money, Sansone is planning a fish fry for them.