Gary C Webb

I get attached to people. Ask my roommates. I really do. People who I see randomly one time and never again. Or people who I see regularly who just astound me and amaze me for one reason or another. Typically I'm so intimidated by them that I can't bring myself to talk to them until several months after discovering them for the first time. I just love them. I idolize them for the things they do without even considering that anyone has noticed them doing it. And they make my world a better place just by being in it.

First was Nathan.

Then Keith, Rose, and Michelle.

And today... Gary C Webb.

Nathan I met on the bus my freshman year. I saw him walking to the bus and my heart went out to him. He has some sort of physical disability that makes it extremely difficult to walk. And watching him broke my heart. I remember distinctly walking behind him one day and offering a silent prayer in my heart of gratitude for my legs and for the ability to walk without pain or hardship and also a prayer for Nathan that he would be blessed for his endurance. I could only imagine how hard it was for him to get anywhere. And yet there he was walking to the bus, getting off and walking to UVU to get an education. I admired his quite dedication and determination to succeed. I never once saw him hesitate or complain about his physical disabilities. He always just pushed onward. Many times I saw him hurrying to the bus stop sweat streaming down his face and yet he went forward. He amazed me day after day without fail. When I finally started talking to him I was astounded at his character ever further. He was recently married and trying hard to get into the music program. He taught me a lot about really chasing your dreams. I enjoyed our conversations and looked forward to sitting and chatting with him every day on my way home. Nathan made me thankful for the blessings in my life and made me want to strive to live everyday in gratitude never taking those blessings for granted.

Keith was an old man in my American Lit class fall semester sophomore year who I just thought was darling. He had to be 80 years old and he came to every class with his anthology in hand, read, and willing to discuss whichever piece we were inspecting that day. I loved him. I loved the idea of still being at University when I was 80 and of still stretching the corners of my mind and thinking about literature in all its depths. There were several times that I wanted to talk to him. To ask him his story and I just couldn’t. I admired him too much and thought myself too much beneath him to talk to him. It sounds completely ridiculous and silly but I promise that’s how I felt. One day we happened to be in the same discussion group and I loved his ideas about the poem we read and his view on the world of literature. It was a fabulous day in my life. Keith created gratitude in my soul for education and for Universities where one can come to study and improve. Keith made me want to be an eternal student - forever expanding the reaches of my intellect and increasing the well of my knowledge.

Rose was a guest I met at Jo Anns during the holiday season sophomore year. Every time a new coupon came out she was there buying another two spools of ribbon to make her grandchildren’s Christmas presents. For months I knew that I could expect her to come in once a week until she’d purchased each and every one of her grandchildren their spool of ribbon which would help her complete their Christmas surprise. I loved her patience and diligence. I have helped many guests in my time at Jo Anns and only a few have stuck out to me. Rose was one of them. I remember specifically one night her explaining her grand financial plan… She told me that everywhere she went she always paid in cash so she would be sure she always indeed did have funds for her purchase and also so she could save her one dollar bills. When she wrote down her expenditures she would put down $5.00 even instead of $2.57 so she wouldn’t miss the extra dollars. Then she would put the dollar bills away for a rainy day. You wouldn’t believe all the things she told me she bought with her dollar bills when those rainy days stormed down upon her family over the years. I have never forgotten that advice and have been much more conscientious about where and how my dollar bills leave me. Rose taught me to plan for the future because you can’t always see the storm until the thunder rolls and it is too late. I always wished I could thank her for her advice and tell her how much it meant to me that she was always so willing to be like my own grandmother to me whom she did not even know. And then one day I got a new job working at Jitterbug and there was Rose. We have since had many conversations about life and love and I have discovered again that I want to live a life of service.

Michelle. I don’t even really have words for her sometimes when I try to describe her. She just is Michelle. I met her at Jitterbug this last semester. I work a random morning shift on Saturdays and started talking to her some then but didn’t really know how unbelievably incredible she was until she switched to the night shift. She is one of those people you meet only a few times in your life who for whatever reason you just click with. I love her. More than I love several if not most of the people in this world. She is divine. She has to be the daughter of a King. That is the only explanation I could see making sense for Michelle being Michelle. You can just tell in the way she carries herself. In the way she listens to others and talks to them about their lives. She makes you want to be a better person just by being around her. She never has to say anything – you just see her quietly pressing onward and want to try a little harder to reach your own potential. She inspires you and instils in you the power and desire to grow. I feel so unworthy to be her friend and yet I never want to imagine my life without some form of contact with her. She reminds me of Glinda the good fairy in that she just makes you believe that all your wishes and dreams really can come true and then somehow she shows you just how you can make them so. Our late night talks have really helped me rediscover who I am and who I can be. I believe in myself because Michelle believed in me first.

Gary C. Webb called in today and I loved him in an instant. He called me so he could be sure that upper management got the message that James in Detroit Customer Service was an asset to our company and that he was so extremely patient and kind to Gary that he really felt he should be recognized for it. He wanted to emphasize that too often the only feedback anyone gets about their employees is negative because someone was in a bad mood that day. So he wanted to be sure to set some good feedback in motion for James. What a sweet man. He said he’d already been speaking with James’ supervisor but that he was cut off and just wanted to be sure everyone knew about James’ outstanding work. He took a good 15 – 20 min out of his day just to be sure that someone else was given the credit and applause that they deserved. He didn’t have to do it and yet he was more than happy to. Towards the end of the call he asked my name again and I told him it was Abby. He told me that was a beautiful name and inquired if it was short for Abigail. I told him it was not but that secretly sometimes I wished it was really Abigail because I love LOve LOVE the name Abigail. He told me to go down the courthouse and change it if it didn’t cost too much. He told me to go out and get my name. It wasn’t my full name or my last name so it shouldn’t hurt my parents too much but that I should do that little thing for myself. It was such a cute old man thing to say. We chatted a bit longer and I got off the phone more grateful for my own name and more grateful to be me. Gary taught me that I am more than a name and that we all need to do a little something extra for ourselves from time to time. And if we can, take a few min out of our day to pass on a kind word about a fellow human. Pay it forward.

There are so many more people like this who have come in and out of my life whom I have loved so very deeply. Some I have never even talked to but have just loved and admired from afar, grateful to God that they exist in the world and for that moment that they existed in my life. You just may be one of these very people to someone out there is this vast universe and you don’t even have a clue. I pray in my heart that I can be this kind of person to just one other someone in my life. That would mean the world to me and make my life complete.

Extraordinary people are all around us every day. Do we take the time to notice them or are we too busy in our own lives to take but a moment to be grateful for someone else? Taking the time to see these people in my own life has enriched and blessed my life in so many ways. I pray this childlike love and admiration stays with me throughout the rest of my years to continue to buoy me up and make me stronger.

Thank you to all the Nathans, Keiths, Roses, Michelles, and Garys who make this world and the people in it better just by being apart of the life around them. You are all divine.

Goodnight, dear void.