Selasi Sampson aka "Deep Clean"

Stage Name: “DEEP CLEAN”

Meet Selasi (Wonder Woman) Sampson or ‘Deep Clean’ as she is better known here in these parts. She is shown here in one of her ‘rooms’ - we know it as the Chapel or Assembly Room – but to her it is one of her sanctuaries where not a single dust particle escapes her dreaded ‘most wanted’ list. It may sneak into her building but it will die before it can cause any damage.

My Mother was one of the hardest working women I have ever known. Nola Davis, Florence McDonald, Pat Duke, Nellie, Merle and Reva were no slouches with a broom and a dust mop...my wife has always run a microscopically clean ship, but with each of them I could – if I would have had a mind to (don’t remember ever doing it, but...) - sneak up on a lamp shade or under the dining room table and on a bad day find two or three of those sneaky dust babies who got away from their persistent and through mop...

But I don’t think anyone has ever been known to escape the clutches of ‘DEEP CLEAN’. Let me share some evidence. I have yet to come back to our apartment after she has polished the last doorknob and find anything that has not been sanitized and Celestialized. The TV and VCR have always got to be re-tuned as she can’t resist cleaning every button and not just the top of each button but around and in the valleys between buttons - she can’t help herself – even after I explain to her that I’m a technological reject and how I struggle to master the on/off and change channel buttons on the remote - and if anything doesn’t come on with a push of either of those two buttons I go into deep depression - even after I plead with her that those few particles that fall between the buttons will last until January she can’t stand to leave the room without them knowing she saw them ‘go in’ and they must ‘come out’.

More evidence? The bottles on everything in the bathroom are closed and sealed shut. The taps are turned so tight (she’s not only through, she as strong as a team of oxen on the road to Zion) it takes a pipe wrench to get the water to even drip let alone flowing again (with some careful explanations about the sensitive nature of water gaskets she finally consented to stop putting the Herculean touch on the taps).

The soap bar (not just the dish) in the shower has been thoroughly scrubbed and properly placed in the dish - how much cleaner can you get than the soap bar? Why does it need cleansed and sanitized? I’m sure she has found the few little stashes of money I have ‘put away’ and hidden - I’ll bet she knows how much I have and has restacked each bill and placed them face up. Those are enough to make my point.

Oh, one more. One day the sound system in the building, died – that’s quite serious (not like Vietnam or Iraq, but for us, pretty emotional) Our Physical Facilities man happens by and with his expert help we discover the problem: Deep Clean had cleaned so deep that when she had sanitized (she never just cleans) the audio visual room she had probed so deep with her sticks and cleaners that she had hit an on/off switch so deep under equipment that Houdini or the Watergate crew couldn’t have found it – but Deep Clean had gone where no mop (or rag) had ever gone before.

She’s that good – probably the best – and we know that no unclean thing can enter the Kingdom - she will make it for sure.

What lessons can we learn from this amazing lady?
1) Be Clean.
2) Help others to be clean.
3) When you’re the best - you will be respected.
4) Your reputation is earned by your performance – therefore PERFORM well.

WE know we will never forget Selasi. ‘Deep Clean’ has earned her great reputation with Performance – that may be the old fashioned way – but it’s refreshing – and it smells good!