Change Your Stars!
Defining Moments  *
We do not remember days ... we remember moments.
Cesare Pavese
The Power Of Love
Anonymous

Andy was a quiet man.  He didn't talk much.  He would always greet you with a big smile and a firm handshake.  Even after living in our neighborhood for over 50 years, no one could really say they knew him very well.

Before his retirement, he took the bus to work each morning.  The lone sight of him walking down the street often worried us.  He had a slight limp from a bullet wound received in WWII.  Watching him, we worried that although he had survived WWII, he may not make it through our changing uptown neighborhood with its ever-increasing random violence, gangs, and drug activity.

When he saw the flyer at our local church asking for volunteers for caring for the gardens behind the minister's residence, he responded in his characteristically unassuming manner.  Without fanfare, he just signed up.

He was well into his 87th year when the very thing we had always feared finally happened.  He was just finishing his watering for the day when three gang members approached him.  Ignoring their attempt to intimidate him, he simply asked, "Would you like a drink from the hose?"

The tallest and toughest looking of the three said, "Yeah, sure," with a malevolent little smile.

As Andy offered the hose to him, the other two grabbed Andy's arm, throwing him down.  As the hose snaked crazily over the ground, dousing everything in its way, Andy's assailants stole his retirement watch and his wallet, and then fled.  Andy tried to get himself up, but he had been thrown down on his bad leg.  He lay there trying to gather himself as the minister came running to help him.  Although the minister had witnessed the attack from his window, he couldn't get there fast enough to stop it.

"Andy, are you okay?  Are you hurt?" the minister kept asking as he helped Andy to his feet.

Andy just passed a hand over his brow and sighed, shaking his head.  "Just some punk kids.  I hope they'll wise up someday."  His wet clothes clung to his slight frame as he bent to pick up the hose.  He adjusted the nozzle again and started to water.

Confused and a little concerned, the minister asked, "Andy, what are you doing?"

"I've got to finish my watering.  It's been very dry lately," came the calm reply.

Satisfying himself that Andy really was all right, the minister could only marvel.  Andy was a man from a different time and place.

A few weeks later the three returned.  Just as before their threat was unchallenged.  Andy again offered them a drink from his hose.  This time they didn't rob him.  They wrenched the hose from his hand and drenched him head to foot in the icy water.  When they had finished their humiliation of him, they sauntered off down the street, throwing catcalls and curses, falling over one another laughing at the hilarity of what they had just done.

Andy just watched them.  Then he turned toward the warmth giving sun, picked up his hose, and went on with his watering.

The summer was quickly fading into fall and Andy was doing some tilling when he was startled by the sudden approach of someone behind him.  He stumbled and fell into some evergreen branches.  As he struggled to regain his footing, he turned to see the tall leader of his summer tormentors reaching down for him.  He braced himself for the expected attack.

"Don't worry old man, I'm not gonna hurt you this time."  The young man spoke softly, still offering the tattooed and scarred hand to Andy.  As he helped Andy get up, the man pulled a crumpled bag from his pocket and handed it to Andy.

"What's this?" Andy asked.

"It's your stuff," the man explained.  "It's your stuff back.  Even the money in your wallet."

"I don't understand," Andy said.  "Why would you help me now?"

The young man shifted his feet, seeming embarrassed and ill at ease.  "I learned something from you," he said.    "I ran with that gang and hurt people like you.  We picked you because you were old and we knew we could do it.  But every time we came and did something to you, instead of yelling and fighting back, you tried to give us a drink.  You didn't hate us for hating you.  You kept showing love against our hate."

He stopped for a moment.  "I couldn't sleep after we stole your stuff, so here it is back."

He paused for another awkward moment, not knowing what more there was to say.  "That bag's my way of saying thanks for straightening me out, I guess."  And with that, he walked off down the street.

Andy looked down at the sack in his hands and gingerly opened it.  He took out his retirement watch and put it back on his wrist.  Opening his wallet, he checked for his wedding photo.  He gazed for a moment at the young bride that still smiled back at him from all those years ago.

He died one cold day after Christmas that winter.  Many people attended his funeral in spite of the weather. In particular the minister noticed a tall young man that he didn't know sitting quietly in a distant corner of the church.  The minister spoke of Andy's garden as a lesson in life.  In a voice made thick with unshed tears, he said, "Do your best and make your garden as beautiful as you can.  We will never forget Andy and his garden."

The following spring another flyer went up.  It read: "Person needed to care for Andy's garden."  The flyer went unnoticed by the busy parishioners until one day when a knock was heard at the minister's office door.

Opening the door, the minister saw a pair of scarred and tattooed hands holding the flyer.  "I believe this is my job, if you'll have me," the young man said.  The minister recognized him as the same young man who had returned the stolen watch and wallet to Andy.

He knew that Andy's kindness had turned this man's life around.  As the minister handed him the keys to the garden shed, he said, "Yes, go take care of Andy's garden and honor him."

The man went to work and, over the next several years, he tended the flowers and vegetables just as Andy had done.  During that time, he went to college, got married, and became a prominent member of the community.  But he never forgot his promise to Andy's memory and kept the garden as beautiful as he thought Andy would have kept it.

One day he approached the new minister and told him that he couldn't care for the garden any longer.  He explained with a shy and happy smile, "My wife just had a baby boy last night, and she's bringing him home on Saturday."

"Well, congratulations!" said the minister, as he was handed the garden shed keys. "That's wonderful! What's the baby's name?"

"Andy."
 
Submitted
by
Jamie Evans
  

Copyright © 2010, Jace Carlton.  All International Rights Reserved.

 
*   Defining Moments are those times in our lives when something happens that changes us in some way.  Perhaps it's someone who comes into our life, or it's an event that occurs, or something we read or hear about and we know we'll just never be quite the same again.  These moments can come at a time when we in our deepest despair, or when we're pondering a major decision, or even when we're at our peak of excellence, but they still stand out and hopefully we recognize them for what they are ... special gifts just for us.

The stories I share in Defining Moments may be brief or not, but they will hopefully make a difference in someone's life when they read them.  When they do, I would really appreciate hearing from you.  And if you have a story to share of a Defining Moment in your life, or you've read just such a story, please share it so that together we can hopefully make a difference in someone else's life.

Thanks!!!
    Jace

Copyright © 2005 - 2010, Jace Carlton.  All International Rights Reserved.

Copyright © 2005-2013, Jace Carlton.  All International Rights Reserved.