Locklair helps keep homes, hearts warm

In this time of year when the mercury drops and heating your home becomes more important than ever, SCE&G employee Randy Locklair is taking warming people’s lives to a whole new level.

He’s worked as an employee of the gas company for several years, and before that, he worked for the Pee Dee Electric Cooperative. What that’s meant for Locklair is an opportunity to go beyond the “meter man” reputation, and to really touch the lives of those he meets.

“I probably spend a little more time at people’s houses talking to them, just as a friend, a little longer then I probably should,” Locklair said.

Locklair’s job often takes him to the homes of the poor and the elderly, and he says he can’t leave his heart at the door. He’s experienced several occasions in which he felt compelled to help, including one when he arrived at the home of a cancer patient with three children.

“She was heating her home with her oven, it was right around Christmas and I thought, you know, these kids are probably not gonna get anything for Christmas,” Locklair said. “I came home, I was talking to my wife about it, so we got together and me and her and my parents, we put some money together and we got them a microwave and we took a bunch of toys to them.”

Locklair makes regular visits to check on his elderly customers, and takes their cares and concerns with him, well past his 9 to 5 workday. One man, whom he now considers a good friend, is a bilateral amputee who was once having trouble with his heating unit. Locklair did everything he could to fix the unit the day of the call, and even came back to check on the man the next morning, because of the cold temperatures the previous night.

Randy’s wife, Margi, says her husband has always been more than willing to help anyone in need, and says she never really knows what to expect.

“One day he came home and we had to go to someone’s house to help them get their cat out of the top of the tree,” Margi Locklair said. “I don’t know how we were gonna do it, but somehow we spooked the cat and got him out of the top of the tree.

“I don’t ever know where he’s gonna be taking me next, but he can’t let anything go, he always feels like he has to help.”

Margi says Randy gives every bit of himself to the community, and to those who need it the most.

“Nothing’s gonna take them out of their situations, but if he can just kind of make their day a little bit better, I think that makes him feel a lot better and that’s what everybody should do,” she said.

Locklair says he definitely doesn’t think of himself as a hero, but instead someone who’s been blessed with the opportunity to help others, and to show them what warmth and compassion are really all about.

“I’m a little embarrassed that this has been brought to the forefront, but I’m honored,” Randy Locklair said.  “Anything I do is not heroic, it just comes naturally and I just enjoy meeting people and helping people out.”