A LOVE WITHOUT END

An elderly woman sat quietly at a small desk in the corner of the room. She had just finished putting her feelings down on paper, and she was lost in thought about the person she’d written to when there was a gentle knock on the door. Sarah looked up and called out, “Come in. The … Continue reading A LOVE WITHOUT END

THE COMPASSION EXPERIMENT

As she walked into the main lobby, Marilyn took a deep breath and tried unsuccessfully to control her nervousness. The tension had been mounting all morning, and now that the meeting was about to happen, she was having doubts about the entire thing. What if she had miscalculated the value of the interaction? What if … Continue reading THE COMPASSION EXPERIMENT

A LESSON LEARNED

There was no one in town that loved their job more than Chet Sanderson. Being a city employee was a badge of honor he was extremely proud of. It was, by all accounts, a position that almost no one thought he would ever achieve. Born in 1964 with a developmental disability, very few people believed … Continue reading A LESSON LEARNED

THE MAN WITH THE STICK

Seven-year-old Kylie Whitfield peeked out the front window as the man with the stick walked past her house. Every morning, at about the same time, he passed by on the near side of the street, close enough that she could clearly see his full white beard and white hair. Kylie lived with her mother in … Continue reading THE MAN WITH THE STICK

THE PRISONER OF WAR

By the middle of 1966, Thomas Hutchinson had been flying jets off of an aircraft carrier for almost a year. For the twenty-nine-year-old Navy Lieutenant, it seemed like no two missions over Vietnam were ever the same. Each one had its own special form of risk, but this one had been particularly difficult from the … Continue reading THE PRISONER OF WAR

FACES

Ninety-year-old Jake Gaffen, a kind man with a face that disguised the challenges he’d experienced in life, relaxed in his favorite chair as he quietly watched the activity going on around him. Several men sat at a large table playing dominoes. There was good-natured banter about cheating, but Jake was not exactly sure how you … Continue reading FACES

A COMMON BOND

At 11:00 a.m. sharp the doors opened, and the regulars carefully started making their way into the nondescript community building that played such an important role in their lives. As they entered, they were greeted by the hearty aroma of the noontime meal that the staff of five had been laboring over for several hours. … Continue reading A COMMON BOND