Hi! Long time, no talk. The economic crisis hit my doorstep, too. I’ve been busy downsizing my business, closing the Wellness Center that I helped to create along with lots of other great folks and finding a full-time job to go with my (now) part-time business.
Sounds bleak, doesn’t it? It actually got pretty scary right before I got the job (a telephone marketing job which I happen to be really enjoying, not to mention the steady paycheck for the first time in ten years.) For a brief while, I thought I might lose my home. The vulturous debt-collectors were circling overhead.
During that time, I really found out who my friends were. And these are the people I want to write about for the next 30 days.
With all the bad news swirling around us, I thought it would be a good idea to spread a little hope for a change, so I’m going to write about the folks who inspire me, and, if you feel it, you can write me back and tell me about the folks who are keeping you going nowadays.
I’m not talking about the biggies, like everybody’s hero, our new president. I’m talking about the little guys, the guys and gals you know personally who are quietly making a difference in the lives of people around you. Maybe there’s someone who is really making a difference in your community or y0ur school, or church. Maybe they’ve made a difference for you at work. Hey, we could all use some good news about work!! So write back and let us all hear about it.
Okay, so first let me say that learning to ask for help was a BIG , no a HUGE, step for me. But I really didn’t have a choice. I began slowly going under financially, and then I began going under at an alarming rate. I had begun months earlier looking for extra work. At one point I even tried to go to work overseas as a civilian, you know, with one of those Gigantic corporations about to be indicted for bilking the government out of millions? Lucky for me, that job fell through.
Finally, it got so bad we had to close the wellness center. Immediately, I got work. Then my business picked up and now things are better than they’ve been in years. But before they got there a tiny little red-haired Hispanic woman told me, as she handed me $20 for gas, “a month from now you’ll say to yourself ‘things are all right now.'” And, you know what, she was right.
That was my friend, Henrietta. She was there for me the entire time, with gas money, grocery money, cheering me up, cheering me on. You might be saying , “so what? she’s your friend. that’s what she’s supposed to do.”
Fortunately for the people in my town, I’m only one of many, many people whom Henrietta has helped. She’s sorta like the Mother Teresa of San Antonio. Uncle Ernie says she’s the closest thing to a saint he’s ever met in real life. I concur. She lives off social security and help sometimes from the eight children she raised single – handedly.
When my Dad was dying of colon cancer two years ago, she went to the house and gave him a sponge bath with rosemary oil. She was one of his favorite people in the world. His face lit up when she came into the room. She ministers to dying people all the time. Her front yard looks like The Garden of Eden.
The main thing she gave me was hope in dark times.
So, whose your Henrietta? Who’s your hero?