Even though we live less than 5 miles from each other, I had not run into George in over 12 years. The last time I saw him was my last day of work. We instantly picked up where we had left off. George and I spent many, many hours in deep conversation about walking with Christ and what it looked like to each of us. George and I couldn't
t be more different. He was a Romanian immigrant and while we had nothing in common, we could connect on a deeper level. We didn't always agree but always walked away friends. We learned from one another, lessons that could be learned no other way.
I saved George from being fired once. He took home a piece of equipment in total innocence but The Powers That Be, didn't see it that way. The intervention worked so George stayed on and our conversations continued. In his off time, he was a master carpenter. He built a huge house on the side of a hill and offered me a tour when he was done. The staircase was grander than anything I had ever seen. This was over 15 years ago and he said the materials alone cost over $25,000. With what was left over, he also built a beautiful casket...for his mother-in-law. He brought photos of it and he was right, it was gorgeous It was an on-going joke of his that he built this for her and she refused to make use of it. There would come a day when the casket would be needed but not for George's MIL. One of our co-workers would lose his 16 year old daughter in a deadly car accident. George offered the casket to him and his offer was accepted. George said he would build another one.
Several months later, George would need it. Tragically, his teenage daughter would be killed in a car accident. After his daughter's funeral, we all drove up to their home and as George put it, to let her see her home one more time. Imagine that.
He seemed to be doing fine when I saw him. Like me, when the plant was being immobilized again to produce ethanol, he was contacted to see if he would come back to work for the new company. We both said no, again for way different reasons but after all we had been through together, I think neither of us wanted to go back. I wouldn't trade the experience for anything but doing it again was another matter. I wished George well as he did me and we went our separate ways.
You never know when and how you might be transported to a time long ago or how you might react. The old memories come rushing back but with time, you have a change to reflect. Some people never get it...never. George is not one of them and it is my pleasure to know him...
