As a Dallas Fireman
It’s not every day that we get ‘thank yous’ or heartfelt acts of thanks. We don’t work for that reason, or look for praise. However, one day, shopping with our crew, we were approached by an older woman, who was telling us thank you for saving her husband’s life. We said, oh you’re welcome and were gracious. The woman continued on to tell her story and began to cry and be very emotional. At that moment, it reminded us that what we think of just ‘doing our job’ really meant the entire world to some others.
On Jan 10th 1996 I attended my nephew’s funeral. He was only 21 days old when he died from a heart malfunction. My sister was, of course, devastated because Patrick was her first child. In fact he was the first grandchild for my parents as well. This hit the family very hard. It was even more difficult because Jan 10th is my birthday and my sister, who had just lost her first child felt like she needed to apologize for holding the funeral on my birthday. After the funeral was over I needed to drive back to school to attend classes. The drive was about 5 hours from Baton Rouge so I had plenty of time to think about the funeral. When I arrived at my dorm it was near 11pm. I opened the door to a room filled with balloons and signs expressing both happy birthday and condolences. Four of my friends were sitting in the room waiting for me to come home. Knowing that I needed to release the sadness of the day, they sat there patiently waiting for me to get back so that they could console me. That is when I realized that those people valued me as a friend and human.
When I was in middle school and high school, I took music lessons the only place I could in my hometown, a very conservative, evangelical studio. My instructor teased me (good naturedly) for being a liberal but really listened to my views – usually. I never really knew how she or the other students really felt about me, although they were always polite and welcoming. I was a theatre kid in high school, something not really a part of their world, but I mentioned it at my lessons sometimes. When I graduated from high school, my teacher told me she had a surprise planned for me at our final recital. After I had finished my pieces, my teacher and the younger students began to play an arrangement of ‘For Good’ from ‘Wicked’ – hilarious and poignant for a number of reasons in the context – dedicated to me. I finally knew I belonged in that place.
It’s not every day that we get ‘thank yous’ or heartfelt acts of thanks. We don’t work for that reason, or look for praise. However, one day, shopping with our crew, we were approached by an older woman, who was telling us thank you for saving her husband’s life. We said, oh you’re welcome and were gracious. The woman continued on to tell her story and began to cry and be very emotional. At that moment, it reminded us that what we think of just ‘doing our job’ really meant the entire world to some others.
On Jan 10th 1996 I attended my nephew’s funeral. He was only 21 days old when he died from a heart malfunction. My sister was, of course, devastated because Patrick was her first child. In fact he was the first grandchild for my parents as well. This hit the family very hard. It was even more difficult because Jan 10th is my birthday and my sister, who had just lost her first child felt like she needed to apologize for holding the funeral on my birthday. After the funeral was over I needed to drive back to school to attend classes. The drive was about 5 hours from Baton Rouge so I had plenty of time to think about the funeral. When I arrived at my dorm it was near 11pm. I opened the door to a room filled with balloons and signs expressing both happy birthday and condolences. Four of my friends were sitting in the room waiting for me to come home. Knowing that I needed to release the sadness of the day, they sat there patiently waiting for me to get back so that they could console me. That is when I realized that those people valued me as a friend and human.
When I was in middle school and high school, I took music lessons the only place I could in my hometown, a very conservative, evangelical studio. My instructor teased me (good naturedly) for being a liberal but really listened to my views – usually. I never really knew how she or the other students really felt about me, although they were always polite and welcoming. I was a theatre kid in high school, something not really a part of their world, but I mentioned it at my lessons sometimes. When I graduated from high school, my teacher told me she had a surprise planned for me at our final recital. After I had finished my pieces, my teacher and the younger students began to play an arrangement of ‘For Good’ from ‘Wicked’ – hilarious and poignant for a number of reasons in the context – dedicated to me. I finally knew I belonged in that place.
