Most people’s bucket list doesn’t include an actual bucket. Not so for Mary Chagnon, a resident at Havenwood Heritage Heights who at 86 years young jumped into an excavator and dumped a couple bucket loads of dirt on the ground Friday morning.
Chagnon was playing bridge with a friend not too long ago when she overheard the construction taking place as part of the community’s expansion project, and it lit something of a fire under her.
“I was sitting on the porch playing bridge and it was making an awful lot of noise, and I said, ‘It’d be fun to operate that,’ ” Chagnon said.
She answered a request from Sue Pollock, director of programs at Havenwood Heritage Heights, to submit a few bucket list items, and with construction already under way right around the corner, Chagnon’s was an easy one to hook up.
“I said, if ever, this would be the time and the place,” Pollock said.
So Chagnon, under the guidance of Merl Chapman, owner of Advance Siteworks, donned a hard hat and grabbed the controls, tossing a few bucket loads of dirt onto the ground. And in only a matter of minutes she looked ready for full-time work.
“It was easier than I thought it would be,” Chagnon admitted. “I’m glad I did it.”
