I usually try to keep things upbeat and funny here in TWIT, but occasionally life happens and causes me to reflect on sad and gloomy things. Unfortunately, this is such a day.
The weather turned cold again, and this morning the temps were in the 20s with 30 mph winds all morning long. I ran a few errands this morning, and as I was pulling out of the grocery store parking lot, I noticed someone walking down the sidewalk. They stood out for the simple fact that they were the only person I saw walking other than shoppers going to/from the store. They had on a big coat, with a hood, and had on a scarf and gloves, so I wasn't too worried about them getting hypothermia. I was able to get a closer look at their face, and the walker was a black woman in her early 40s. She was holding something dark red in her hand, and from a distance, it appeared to be a scarf. It bothered me that someone had to walk on a cold, windy day like this. All sorts of things ran through my mind - Was she poor and couldn't afford a car? Was she not able to drive? Was she homeless?
I ran a couple more errands and stopped by the post office on my way home, and as I was pulling out of the parking lot, I spotted the woman once again. There were a few cars ahead of me waiting to turn onto the street, so I had a minute to sit there and watch her. This time, she was just a few feet from me when she passed by and I was able to get a clear view of what she was holding in her hand -- it was a dark red Telletubbie doll. She had a death grip on it as she was walking down the sidewalk. I could see her mouth moving so I guess she was either talking to herself or to the doll. I hope she made it home safe.
I came back home and was fixing something to eat, when the phone rang. It was an old friend of the family letting us know that a mutual friend had died late last night. It wasn't a total shock; Julie had fought a long hard battle with leukemia for the past 5 years, and she had gotten worse in just the past week. We were expecting it, but not just this soon. Julie was only 34. She and her family attended our old church - I grew up with her and her brother, and our families have been friends for over 40 years. Since we leftour other church in 1998, we hadn't seen Julie very much, but each time we saw her she was the same Julie - always a big smile on her face. She was without a doubt the sweetest 'kid' from our other church. When she would come to our home with some of the other kids in the church youth group to visit Grandma, she was the only kid that would take the time to sit by Grandma and talk with her. She was clearly Grandma's favorite from the church. That one small act of kindness really made an impression on me.
Her husband works in the factory at ZCO, and he would give us reports of how she was doing. This Christmas, everybody in the factory wanted to do something for them, but they didn't know what. They'd originally wanted to send Julie, her husband and little daugther to Disney World, but after speaking to Julie's parents, they found out that physically she wouldn't be able to stand a trip like that. The guy that was in charge of collecting the money told me about it, and I told him I would handle the collection from the office; once they heard about Julie and Tommy, I knew they would want to help out, too. I'm very proud of all of my co-workers - even at a time like Christmas when people are usually strapped for cash, we collected almost $2000 for them. We paid $1500 of it directly to LG&E, so their electric and gas bill will be paid for probably over a year, and the rest was put on a Krogers gift card for groceries and prescriptions.
Even though Julie wasn't with us very long, she left a mark on every life she touched for her attitude, faith, and her smile.
2 comments:
Wow. Sorta puts things in perspective, doesn't it?
The Bible says that sorrow has a refining influence on us. I do believe that because death brings such a haunting reality to our perspective. As with the people living on the street, it is amazing that they seem to have the tenacity to move on even though it is so out of our realm. I recall writing a college paper during the days that I would park the car and walk the three miles to my job downtown. It was amazing the number of people that set up permanent campsites under the interstate overpasses. They have a regimen about life though and always wake up early in order to scavenge through the McDonald's drive-thru garbage cans during the rush hour breakfast. I always knew when they had left for their daily food search by the streams of urine on the concrete slopes underneath the overpasses. I gradually became desensitized to this especially since I eagerly anticipated glorious sunrises while walking the bridge over the mighty Ohio River. The street people are so much stronger than those of us that know we will arrive home safely and warm our tired old bones by the fire in our carefully insulated homes. But I do still walk out in the backyard and shiver in haste as I'm astounded that my daffodils still penetrate the hard soil in the eager quest to meet Spring. And with that, I know that we will warm up again and hopefully retain the tenacity of those I see on the street.
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