Last summer, the daughter and granddaughter of Mayflower resident, John Noer, give him a 9,000-piece puzzle (really, 9,000!) as a combination Father’s Day and birthday present. Ironically, John, who is an active puzzler, had been contemplating the purchase of a similar-sized puzzle.
It came in a plastic tub. There were two bags full of pieces. With the help of granddaughter Elizabeth Peart of Littleton, Illinois, John tore into the bags and started looking for the border pieces. After all the pieces were collected in bowls, John read the puzzle box and discovered that one bag of pieces was for the left side of the puzzle and one was for the right side. Too late! They were all mixed by that time.
John set to work on the puzzle on two side-by-side 10-foot tables covered with butcher paper in the Mayflower Basement Craft Shop. His goal was to complete the puzzle by Christmas. Working an average of six days a week for about six months, he beat that! By late October, the puzzle was finished with no leftover pieces.
Then, John used two coats of Elmer’s Glue on the front and one on the back to fix the pieces. With the assistance of Jim Beckman, owner of Grinnell’s Beckman Gallery, John mounted a wire-reinforced whiteboard backing on the puzzle. Jim and John then framed it with a special frame made out of state.
The puzzle now hangs proudly in the Mayflower Carman Center….A tribute to tireless effort and much encouragement by John’s wife Dorothy and other Mayflower residents!
– Bob Mann, Sales & Marketing Director