Leroy was 68 when he enrolled in outpatient hospice services with chronic airway obstruction. He lived with his wife “Cricket” and his adult daughter, “Bunny”. Leroy had three adult sons, Lee, Larry and Lonnie. Leroy’s minor grandson, Nick, was usually hanging around when I visited. Leroy and his family loved the outdoors and they’ve left behind them a trail of adventures, mishaps and close calls; experiences that scare the daylights out of you when they’re happening, but make for entertaining stories around the kitchen table. Bunny looked at her dad, shook her head and declared, “Dad is probably the only person in the world who almost turned over a pontoon boat.” Leroy just looked up and sheepishly grinned.
In retrospect, I knew I should have given Leroy a driver’s test before loaning him our motorized scooter. Leroy took it to Indian Lake on a family fishing trip. His son, Lonnie recounted, “It was almost dark, so we decided to head back. Dad had gone ahead of us on the scooter, and as we were walking up the path with the fishing equipment, we saw something fly across the parking lot. The next thing we heard was a thud. We ran to see what it was and there was dad lying on his side.” Leroy, in self-defense, claimed, “I just wanted to see what it would do! I was going around a dumpster and I ran out of pavement.”
Leroy retired from a company that manufactured train rails. They electronically forged sections of rails up to a quarter mile long. Leroy hired in as a “point man”, guiding the rails onto railroad cars. Leroy quickly climbed the company ladder, eventually becoming foreman, supervising a crew of twenty-five men. Leroy reflected, “Each time I was assigned a new position I was placed beside a man who was already doing the job, who was told to show me what to do.” When Leroy became foreman in Belleview, Ohio he took a young worker under his wing and “showed him what to do”. Consequently, when Leroy accepted a new position in Russell, Kentucky, he already had his replacement trained. Not only did the young man Leroy trained replace him, he became the plant manager and a national trouble shooter for the company.
Leroy’s protégé reminds me of another young man. This young man’s father died when he was eleven years old. Lacking wealth and much formal education, the young man had little hope of a life of national significance, but he had a heart for adventure. At age sixteen he became a surveyor in the rugged frontier lands of Western Virginia. At age twenty-one he was commissioned by the British Governor of Virginia, to carry a message to the French near Lake Erie; to declare to them that the Ohio Country belonged to England. So, on October 31st, 1753, he and his party of six, departed from Williamsburg, Virginia. While crossing the Allegheny River, the young man fell from his raft into the swirling icy-cold water. If it weren’t for his companion, Christopher Gist, the young man may have drowned or died of hypothermia. Gist pulled him out of the water, got him to shore, built a fire to warm up his body. That young man was George Washington.
I’ve come to realize that there is no such thing as a self-made man or an individual accomplishment. The Apostle Paul reminded the Corinthian church, “For who regards you as superior? And what do you have that you did not receive, but if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it,” (I Corinthians 4:6-7)?
What if Christopher Gist hadn’t been there to pull George Washington out of the freezing water? What if Leroy hadn’t taken that young man under his wing? What if the significant people in our lives hadn’t cared for, provided for, encouraged, taught and maybe even rescued us? You see, there’s no such thing as a self-made man or an individual accomplishment.
“Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God…who led you through that great and terrible wilderness…then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth’…then you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power…” (Deuteronomy chapter 8)
Loren Hardin is a social worker with SOMC-Hospice and can be reached at 740-357-6091 or at lorenhardin53@gmail.com. You can order Loren’s book, “Straight Paths: Insights for living from those who have finished the course”, at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
