Widow takes helm of mold-remediation business

In December 2007, life was very good for Ed and Nancy Lucas.

Springfield-based Medallion Healthy Homes of Missouri Inc., the mold-remediation business they started in 2002, was finally taking off. Business was so good, in fact, they decided to treat themselves to a ski trip to celebrate their 20th anniversary.

Ed hadn't skied in 12 years, and Nancy was up for a spa trip, so they packed their bags and headed to Utah.

Ed was on his first run, skiing down the mountain, when he heard a snap.

In that moment, everything changed.

The snap was his hip, and the Lucases would later learn that a tumor caused the break - and that bone cancer had spread to Ed's lungs.

The couple spent the next year trying chemotherapy, radiation and clinical trials at the Mayo Clinic and University of Minnesota, anything to keep Ed alive.

Through it all, Nancy - who previously was perfectly content to let Ed be the air-quality genius of the family - struggled to maintain their home, care for her husband and somehow keep Medallion Healthy Homes going.

"My whole goal was to keep the business running for Ed to have something to come back to," she said.

But in November, they learned Ed was out of treatment options.

In December, the cancer spread to Ed's brain, and on Jan. 26, he died at age 44.

Trial and error

In 2002, Ed Lucas was getting ready to retire from the U.S. Air Force. He was an instructor at Fort Leonard Wood, and he and Nancy had made their home in Lebanon.

He wanted to have a business of his own after retirement, Nancy said, and he had seen the Medallion Healthy Homes franchise advertised in a magazine.

By the time of his military retirement, on April 1, 2003, the company was up and running and he was making frequent trips to Springfield to drum up business.

In November 2003, the couple moved their home-based business to Springfield.

They fielded a lot of calls about mold in crawlspaces. Ed explained what the problem might be and that the callers needed to install moisture barriers, but he wasn't making any money on those calls.

"He said, 'I can't do it; it needs two people,'" Nancy said. She offered to help, and that's how she got started in the business.

The first few years were rocky. Ed loved to explain the vagaries of mold remediation and indoor air quality, but he told potential customers too much.

"We used to do free evaluations," Nancy said. "Ed would give them so much information, people were trying to do the work themselves ... we were still making no money."

They decided to change strategies, adjusting their rates and putting an end to free evaluations, and the company began a turnaround. The company's fees are based on a home's square footage and the extent of the problem, Nancy said. Charges could range from a few hundred dollars for a freshening-up "shock" treatment to thousands of dollars for large-scale mold remediation.

A crash course in mold

Business really started to pick up in 2006, Nancy said. By 2007, her share of the work increased, and the pair was working on entire houses, ripping out carpets and walls. By this point, the franchise dissolved and Medallion became an independent business.

The company uses machines that emit ozone to rid buildings of mold and other contaminants. The molecules emitted attach to mold spores and bacteria, which eliminates not only mold but also other toxins such as the volatile organic compounds found in construction materials. Ed's machines were humming a lot that year, and after the December 2007 trip, Nancy had no choice but to try to keep them going herself.

Initially, Ed encouraged her to study indoor air-quality issues, to get a firmer handle on the technical aspect of the business.

But after a summer trip to the Mayo Clinic, where a clinical trial had failed to help, "We talked about it and he said, 'You know, I just hate for you to be doing it,'" Nancy recalled. "'This is hard work. You're not really built for it.' I said, 'Ed, what other kind of work am I going to be able to do where I can make this kind of money and still have the freedom to take care of you?' At that time, we didn't know he was terminal."

A solution came in the form of their daughter's boyfriend, Jeff Brashears, who joined the company in mid-January, after having helped out occasionaly in the past several years.

As time went on and Ed's health declined, Nancy absorbed as much information as she could.

"I would listen to him, what he would say to people. He would explain everything in detail. It was just cram, cram, listening, listening ... there were days when I thought my head would explode," she said.

She persevered and became a certified mold inspector through the Environmental Solutions Association.

Forging ahead

In the three months since her husband's death, though, Nancy has had moments when she wasn't sure she could keep it going.

"Then right on the heel of that (I would be reminded that Ed) worked so hard to make it what it was and it's so helpful for people," she said, her voice breaking. "And I've had people say to me, 'Maybe you just need to go get a job.' You know, I could do that, but who's going to help people?"

One customer, Mary Rumbaugh, is glad Nancy has managed to stick with it.

After a January basement flood, the 80-year-old saw mold grow throughout her home. She initially called another company for help, but the cost was too much for her budget.

"They were going to charge $9,700 to rid my house of mold," Rumbaugh said. "And I would have to wash all the drapes and all the quilts and then bag everything up - my clothes and everything, the closets - and wash them before putting anything back in. It was just horrendous, the amount of work.

"I'm 80 years old, I had my arm in a sling because I had surgery on it," she added.

Desparate, she called Medallion Healthy Homes. The quote was for around $4,000.

After Medallion's ozone machine ran for several days, Rumbaugh returned home. "When I came in the house, it smelled fresh and clean. It was just wonderful," she said.

The final cost of the job was $3,600.

Nancy hopes to continue to provide good service at reasonable prices. She's still learning the ropes on the numbers end of the business, and didn't disclose specific revenues. She said Ed took care of that information until he died, and the last year, she was occupied with taking care of him.

She's optimistic about what 2009 holds for her business.

"Ed is gone, but I am still here and I want to carry on the tradition that he had, that he built this company on. It is, integrity counts. ... We want to do our best with everyone we come in contact with," she said.[[In-content Ad]]