Kindness

On January 20th a dear woman gave me a dollar to cover the groceries I was $.75 short on. I had a twenty dollar bill and that was it. How embarrassing it is to get through the line and have to send things back. My little man was next to me making sure we had everything for his fajitas that night and was looking forward to them. I apologized to this woman behind us and asked Tyler if he had any change. She said that she had the change and she had had a bad week and sympathized with me. God bless you dear woman! I don’t know how many people would have been that patient with me after they themselves had had a bad week. She smiled and handed me a dollar. Most people would have been impatient and rude. She kindly came to a neighbors need.

I started thinking how just when you are almost ready to completely give up on society as a whole someone like this comes along. His first day back to work after the holidays Gary was laid off from a company that he had worked six years for. I was, at the time, out of work having just ended a temp job. Our intention was to have me stay home and take care of Tyler and run our snowplow company. The minute he walked in the door he told me that I had to find a job. He was laid off because he made too much money, which from business perspective is perfectly normal, from our perspective it’s not the best decision. Since we just recently bought our house, money has been tight. We budget our money very carefully and aren’t living our usual life. I have to ask permission to go the grocery store, and even to fill up on gas. Tyler constantly complains that he hasn’t been getting daddy’s spare change for his bank, I constantly complain that he grabs it with out asking, I use that change for everything, literally counting pennies.

The first week Gary was home he pouted around the house and did several things that needed to be done, that we had the material for but just not the time. During this time he had pretty much given up all hope on society, and I had too. Both of us couldn’t understand why after six years and making the company massive amounts of money he was let go. Was this company so caught up in money that it would let one of its best employees go?

Finally he started to decide what to do. He’s been in the construction industry for close to twenty years and has the talent and knowledge to do just about anything. A perfectionist by nature everything that he does is done right and done right the first time. The plans that we have for our house would scare anyone else, but excite him. Finally one night watching television he turned to me and said, “I think I’m going to take the plunge.” I didn’t question him because I know once he makes up his mind there is no changing it. He was ready to start his own business. With our new house payment and new bills this is a bit of a risky venture. His attitude was that he was tired of working for the man, so he was going to be the man himself. There was a bit of doubt on his part but once the calls were made and the company set up ALL of our friends came through and even strangers came to our aide.

One of Gary’s mantras is “Never, ever burn a bridge.” This belief has never proved truer than during this time. Once word got around that he was out of work jobs starting pouring in. Friends, who worked for the city, owned their own businesses, even acquaintances that had just caught wind of his reputation started calling with jobs. Now we have work piling up. At first we thought that we would have to beg for the work, we had never counted on the kindness of our friends or of strangers. Even the owner of this paper has come to our aide; for one giving me a job, two helping our business, Tygar, to grow and be noticed. (I’m sorry that’s a shameful plug, but can you blame me?) So many different people with different needs have come to us that not only will he be doing his general contracting, but is also expanding into landscaping complimenting our snowplowing business.

Getting back to the beginning of this column and the reason I wrote it, you never know when a kind gesture will be more than appreciated, but taken to heart. Many of us are in a hurry these days and never slow down to help each other. I am guilty of this also. There are many times that I just cruise right through a day with out noticing anyone, or anything other than what my mind if focused on. By this kind gesture though I have realized that there are friends and kindness around every corner, and I hope someday I can be that for someone.