Brighten Your Day

Yesterday I went to see a little girl who is seriously ill and in pain at work. Only the patient and her frail grandmom were in the room. Grandmom is from the Philippines and her English was enough to communicate.

I introduced myself and told grandmom that I too am a grandparent, I'm a PopPop. We spoke and I assured her that I will do everything I can to ensure her granddaughter is resting comfortably. As we spoke I could see that she was tearing up, scared, afraid and started to tremble. I went around the bed and hugged her. She squeezed me as tight as she could. I wasn't going to be the first who stopped hugging. We must have hugged for 5 minutes.

Finally, she stopped an looked up at me with her tears rolling down her face. I again told her I will take special care of her granddaughter and she call on me day or night. She looked me in the eye, thanked me, smiled and said "you are a PopPop." She hugged me again, this time with a sense of relief and relaxation.

Well my friends, that moment sums up why we do what we do. That was my home run with 2 outs in the ninth, my Masters moment, my moment to know what it is to be a complete human being. It doesn't get better than that.