The Words

A young man who worked for me had a child who was born with severe birth defects. The boy lived for 18 months. The father made daily trips to the hospitals and homes to see his son who only came home once in his short life and for only.a day. I tried to make every accommodation I could at work to help him.

At his son's funeral, the father included this at the eulogy he gave for his son: "It was because of one person that I had the strength to carry on, my boss, Evelyn. She told me I was strong, that I had accomplished so much in my life already, overcoming a wealth of obstacles to reach my goals, and that I would survive and handle and get through my son's illness."  I was the only person he credited with this kind of remark, not even his religious leader. I was simply blown away.

Today I saw this quote posted on Facebook, the modern day source of Words To Live By.  I took away two things: a warm and happy feeling that I can count myself as an inspiration to at least one person in this world and the realization that you never know the effect your words can have on another person. 

;-)