Being an Architectural Salvage Coordinator means...

I spent the first hour of work this morning alongside a sweet, elderly woman. We stood outside her pretty home, the sky overcast above us, looking at a decorative wrought iron fence. It has been lying under the large Magnolia Tree in her side yard ever since it was removed from her in-law's home, which was demolished to make way for a shopping center.

Despite wanting to, she could never find a way to make it work outside of her house, so she is giving it to me.

"There's another piece lying around here somewhere," she said as she pushed back the branches of the tree.

"There it is!"

We hunched down amongst the branches, neither of us dressed to get dirty, and moved the earth away with our hands, uncovering elaborately curving metal. She was more eager to free it, as evidenced by the mud that caked her hands, but I'll have to return with proper clothes and tools another day. Then will start my mission to find the person who will transform these pieces back to their former state, to be used once again for what they were intended.