A Big Heart

A Big Heart

    After Granddaddy Ralph died, my parents, my brother, Daniel, and I moved into the two-story farmhouse in Silverstreet with Granny Garner. Grandpa Tom and much of my extended family lived a short distance from Granny Garner.
    When Daniel and I were out of school every Saturday, Daddy rode us up to Grandpa Tom’s, where he kept his farm equipment and other tools. We usually met no one in the short distance between Granny Garner’s and Grandpa Tom’s, but we saw Buddy Thomas one morning.
    We immediately stopped Granny Garner’s 1964 Chevrolet pickup and let him climb in. The old Black man had been working in Earl Watkins‘ dairy and the sweet aroma of fresh milk flooded the pickup’s cab.
    When Daddy asked Buddy where he wanted to go, he said he wanted to go to pay Granny Garner some on the bill Granddaddy Ralph let him run up at their country store. Buddy didn’t pay his entire bill that morning, but he walked those two miles between Earl Watkins‘ dairy barn and Granny Garner’s until he did pay it all. He didn’t let poverty, inconvenience, or the cancer in his leg keep him from doing what he had to do.
    Many people will admire Buddy for doing the right thing, but I admire him for more than that. Too many of us let the slightest inconvenience keep us from doing the right thing. He didn’t and taught a nine-year-old boy the greatest lesson of his life.