True Heroes!!!

i've been meaning to write this post for about a month now. i'm a little bored at work right now, so i decided to post. as some of you know in early May i was summoned by the catastrophe gods to Lees Summit, Missouri. Lees Summit is right near Kansas City on the border of Missouri & Kansas. ok enough with the geography lesson. i will get to the meat & potatoes. when you show up at the catastrophe site, they tell you be empathetic, but not to get too personal with the policy holders. sometimes this is very hard to do & this is why:

it was a friday and a little after noon. as we drove up to the house, there was a older wiry gentleman wearing overalls standing in his driveway. his home had recently been battered by a pretty severe hail storm. we approach him and go through the formal introductions..blah blah blah. i guess he noticed i kinda have an accent and the following dialogue took place:

OWG: where are you from?

Me: the New Orleans area

OWG: (chuckles)yeah i thought so.  i was there after Katrina. me & my church group volunteered to go gut houses & rebuild them. i sold my show car & with the money, i bought a bobcat & a trailer to go help out.

Me:  oh really? whereabouts did you work?

OWG: do you know where St. Bernard Parish is located?

Me: i grew up there

OWG: so i guess you know where Violet is?

Me: that's where i'm from. did you work in Violet?

OWG: yep i used to go to the poydras hardware store twice a day. we were working in Riverbend subdivision

Me: that's the neighborhood i grew up in!!!! i lived on Reunion Street.

OWG: we did 11 houses in Riverbend.

Me: it's a small world!!! on behalf of new orleans i can't thank you enough. 

after that brief exchange we walked around inspecting his home for hail damage.  the whole time he was telling me stories about the time he spent in new orleans. even in the state that it was in, he fell in love with new orleans and was genuinely concerned about the city & it's residents. i assured him that new orleans was making a comeback & it will be better than ever. he said he was going to bring his wife here next year. i welcomed him with open arms. on parting i probably thanked him 10 more times for what he did for our city.

sometimes in life you meet people on chance & they make you appreciate the things you have, the things we take for granted on a daily basis. they make you have hope for humanity. they make you realize that there are still heroes in the world. they don't wear uniforms & play on sundays. they don't demand millions of dollars.  they wear faded overalls & come help a city & it's people in their time of need.