since i've decided to slam just about everyone i know for being inconsiderate clods, it's only FAIR that i remember the FEW who REALLY made a difference to me with their kindness.

a week after i came back to work( you could CALL it that, i mostly sat in a stupor)

dad hired a new appraiser trainee named jimmy. he was REALLY young ( 26) and just out of college and MILES from his hometown. IMMEDIATELY the other clods that i work with started laughing behind his back, telling him the wrong things on purpose, and just generally NOT trying to help him at ALL!!!!! even though i was in a "stupor" i saw and understood what was going on and didn't like it ONE bit.

one day he just "bopped" into my office and asked about my stroke. i told him a synopsis of what had happened but was "suspicious" that he didn't really care, but was trying to "suck up" to my dad. how WRONG was i!!!!! unfortunatley, he is a smoker too and we wound up on the porch together a good bit and struck up a little friendship. after a few weeks he just up and offered to give me rides to my jobs, i was SHOCKED!!!!!!

i was still suspicious ( did he like older women?, did he WANT something?, etc) not ONLY did he drive me around to jobs, the bank, errands, lunch, rides home, etc, he would NOT take gas money and said that one day i could pay him back by helping him. i ended up being his mentor and taught him all the "tricks" of the trade. he was like the little brother i NEVER had and not ONCE did he ever intimate that he WANTED something.

the CLODS were SO jealous. during this time, his mother had a stroke. i was able to help him through that. then his girlfriend left him and went home, i was there for that too. then his car broke down a WEEK after i got my license back and i hauled him around for a week. WHAT a JOY that was to be able to reciprocate.

then, he was offered an appraiser job right on the beach and MUCH closer to his hometown and i encouraged him to take it!!!! jimmy has been gone since before christmas, but we talk on the phone all of the time. this young fellow has TRUE character which i define as a person who voluntarily does for others WITHOUT motive or wanting recognition.

ANYWAY, a GOOD story about people, for a change