From Kalamazoo with love: A father’s handmade bench finds its way home

A lot of meaning can fit inside a box.

That’s what Valeri Lantz-Gefroh discovered when a simple wooden bench arrived at her home 700 miles away, carrying memories of her father and a connection to the community where she grew up.

“It’s not an especially valuable bench,” says Lantz-Gefroh, a former Kalamazoo resident who now lives in Rocky Point, on Long Island, N.Y. “Just a rough-hewn, wooden bench carved decades ago by a man named Mel” — her father — “from a fallen tree on his 10-acre property in Lawton, Michigan.”

But the bench has a history.

Mel Lantz lived an extraordinary life. As director of employee services for Kalamazoo Public Schools, he was one of three people who helped desegregate the district. At his funeral, current superintendent Dr. Darrin Slade spoke about Lantz’s legacy, noting that Kalamazoo Public Schools remains not only the most integrated district in Michigan, but, he said, in the United States.

Years later, the bench Lantz made with his hands would make its way to his daughter as she grieved his loss.

Lantz-Gefroh’s dad “served under seven superintendents, negotiated with nine unions, raised a family, and after retiring at 55 because of heart problems somehow packed another forty years of fishing, woodworking, travel, grandchildren, and love into his life before passing away at 95,” she says.

From Kalamazoo to Lawton

Mel Lantz raised his family in Kalamazoo. His daughter, Valeri, is a graduate of Kalamazoo Central High School and now is a university professor of communication. After retiring, Lantz and his wife moved to Lawton, where they built a Victorian-style house.

On April 25, the day of his funeral, Lantz-Gefroh and her family visited that home.

“When I admired the bench that my father had made decades earlier still sitting next to the garage, the homeowner offered it to me. I declined. We had flown in from New York, and besides, I thought the bench belonged where my father had left it.”

Her son, Alex Lantz-Gefroh, 28, of Maplewood, N.J., knew that despite his mother’s refusal, having the bench would be a comfort to her. The owners of the Lawton house, Sean and Kelly Veilleux, agreed and worked with him to make it happen.

In his final years, Mel Lantz lived with Valeri and her husband, Steve Lantz-Gefroh, for 17 years, followed by four years in a nearby assisted-living facility.

Valeri says, “He was the only person left in my birth family; my mom and brother were both gone, so it was a very hard loss for me — for all of us, but he was such a huge part of my life.”

Mel Lantz had a former woodworking shop in his Lawton home, and Alex recalls spending time with his grandfather as a boy when his family flew in from New York.

“He would have a model airplane made from scratch — he could carve a plane. And then we would work together to paint the plane like the colors of the airline that took us. That was how we spent time together. Woodworking was always his big thing.”

Shipping a bench? No easy thing

The bench measures 54 inches wide, 36 inches high, and 18 inches deep. Trying to arrange transportation by calling popular shipping services quickly became exasperating for Alex.

“I must’ve called 10 numbers. I called one and got their national line, and I must’ve called that number three times, and I got three completely different quotes ranging from as little as $86 to as much as $3,000.”

He tried another company’s national number and got different quotes on two calls.

Kalamazoo UPS to the rescue

Alex asked the Veilleuxs for help, and they suggested the United Parcel Service store at 2925 Oakland Dr. in Kalamazoo.

“I actually got through to a person, which made a difference. They were thrilled to help me. They really did go above and beyond for this,” he says.

The UPS store’s owner, Neha Sharma, describes how she operates.

“First we say yes before saying no. We think we can ship anything that’s not restricted. Especially this bench when he told us that his grandfather built it and it has an emotional value to it.”

The Veilleuxs cleaned the bench and took it to the UPS store. For a while, it sat in the lobby, arousing curiosity among customers: “Is it for sale?” “Can I sit on it?” “Why is it being shipped?”

“We all got emotionally attached to this bench and to the purpose,” Sharma says. “It wasn’t just a shipment — it holds so much family history and emotion.”

The size of the bench package would exceed UPS limits, but Sharma said they could prepare it for a truck freight service. She and two employees, Aman Preet and Breanna Rodriguez, went to work.

They spent many hours wrapping the bench in several kinds of packing materials until they had a package suitable for shipping. They placed it on the store’s scale, which has a top limit of 150 pounds, and learned it weighed at least that much. The package was unwieldy, and the shipping cost would be higher.

“We undid the packing and got the idea ‘Let’s put something very light but also really protective. Let’s fit in some empty boxes,’” Sharma says.

The bench, with lighter but sturdy packing material, was placed in a very large shipping box, and the process sometimes required contortions by one of the packers.

“People would come in and ask for me, then say, ‘Oh, there you are — inside the box,’” Sharma says.

The package was shipped June 3.

Several days later, Valeri Lantz-Gefroh saw a very large truck parking in front of her home. Her husband, Steve, who was cooperating with Alex, helped unload the packaged bench. It was standing on end in the box, which was 82 inches tall. Valeri thought it must be a refrigerator.

Layer after layer of boxes, blankets, and bubble wrap came off until there it was: her father’s bench.

“My son had found a way to give his grieving mother something priceless: a place to sit with my memories,” Valeri says. “Alex shared that everyone he spoke with in Kalamazoo wanted to dive in and help with this ‘grief project.’ And after speaking with Neha [Sharma] and Sean [Veilleux], they both spoke about how important it became to them because it came from love Love of family — who were all in on the mission — and love of strangers who now we consider friends.”

To show her appreciation, Valeri sent a large bouquet to the UPS store. Then in July, with a trip to Michigan for a meeting scheduled, she arranged to visit the store.

On July 25, she and the three UPS employees met at the store and soon were treated by Valeri to dinner at Martell’s restaurant, where they shared stories and photos.

About the work done by many to return a family treasure to her, Valeri says, “Perhaps the bigger gift is the reminder that love has a way of recruiting strangers. And that sometimes healing arrives in the form of a weathered old bench, carried across 700 miles by people who simply wanted to help.”