Weekend Words – If You Had One Call to Make

Have you ever asked yourself, “If I was in the worst possible situation and I could only make one phone call, who would I call?” That person would have to be wise enough not to judge you, loyal enough to trust you and strong enough to have your back and fight for you to the bitter end. As the song from “Man of La Mancha” goes, they would have to be “willing to march into Hell for a Heavenly cause.”

On a recent Sunday drive after church with my mom she reminded me of the person I have always said would be my one phone call – my older sister Margaret. She reminds me of a song lyric: “Sweet as cotton candy; tough as Granddad’s old brandy.” She taught at Mark Twain School, an alternative public school in Montgomery County for students with emotional problems or students who were expelled from other Montgomery County schools, for 12 years. At Twain she established herself as a teacher who never gave up on a student or let them quit on themselves.

She’s also dependable in her personal life. Many years ago my wife and I were moving out of our apartment into our first townhouse on a sweltering August day. I tried to recruit some of my guy friends to help us move. Usually available 24-7, always up for a sporting event, party or grabbing a beer at the local pub, when I needed them to help me move heavy furniture in the heat they were suddenly harder to find than Osama bin Laden. Unlike bin Laden I didn’t track them down in the end. Instead my sister Margaret ended up being the only person who showed up to help my wife and I move. She was there at 8 AM and worked the entire day without a break.

I also know the adversity my sister had to overcome in her own life. She’s extremely loyal, and I know she wouldn’t judge me for a bad situation I was in because of her own life experiences. The bottom line is the word “quit” does not appear in Margaret’s vocabulary. Stubborn? You haven’t seen stubborn until you’ve met my sister. It’s these qualities that make my sister the perfect person for my one phone call.

My wife’s one phone call was also to a sister. Paula had quadruple bypass surgery last year in the middle of the great Blizzard of 2010. After the operation she experienced major complications that nearly took her life. Fortunately the doctors were able to treat the complications and she ultimately made a full recovery. However she was in the hospital for five weeks.

Before the surgery my daughter Grace had asked my wife who she wanted to come take care of her as she recovered, though at the time we thought her recovery would only take a week or so. My wife wanted her sister Sherry. We called Sher, and she made plans to travel from New Mexico to DC. These plans were nearly derailed by the blizzard, but she was prepared to do whatever she had to do to get to her sister. Her flight was canceled, but the next day she was back at the airport on the first flight headed in our direction. In fact, her connecting flight actually left Chicago for DC before any of the local airports had officially re-opened! She wasn’t sure what she would do if the plane got diverted, but she was going to find a way to get to her sister. We couldn’t believe it when she showed up at the hospital that afternoon. That night we got home at around 10PM to find that our driveway was completely covered in snow and we couldn’t pull the car into it. Sherry, dressed in her travel clothes and a beautiful cashmere coat, proceeded to grab a shovel and help Grace and I dig out a spot for the car.

For the next 10 days Sher threw herself into doing everything she could to help her little sister on her road to recovery. When Sherry left there was no doubt in any of our minds that Paula had made the right call.

Unfortunately in today’s society, as connected as we are, it has become harder to find that one person to call. You may have hundreds of contact numbers stored on your cell phone, but how many of those people would answer their phones without fail if you called? How many of them would get out of bed for you in the middle of the night or travel somewhere to help you?

Who would you call if you only had one call to make?

Have a great weekend,

Ro