26 Years of Sit and Wait

Linda, a 65+ years old, was the most dependable and dedicated production employee, I had ever met.  She was never sick, never late, never missed a day and did I say consistent in her work.

She  led our small in house pin production team of ONE.  Yes, Linda was the production team, with the occasional part time help.

My kids joked, what will you do if Linda ever leaves?

I've wondered that myself, but figure Linda has more time left in her than me, so I don't let it worry me much.

So, her asking for a day off was a bit of a surprise.

It started with the plumbing

The plumbing in her 70+ year old house needed attention.

Linda shared the story that every year she calls a plumber to fix a persistent clog and, every year a plumber comes and unclogs the clog.  Nothing more, nothing less.

Days later, she related the story of her day off with the plumber.  

She starts by telling me about her washer which sits on the back porch of her house.  Her house was an old farm house, and next to the washer is a small sink that was used by the farm hands to wash up.

For her the sink doubled as a drain for the washer, because the drain on the washer had no where to go.  The kicker, the sink didn't drain itself.

So, each time Linda washed she would sit next to the sink and scoop water to prevent it from overflowing.  

She sits and waits for the 1-2 hours every time she washes clothes.  And she has done this for 26 years.

I was baffled.

How long have you done this?

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So, I asked; "You’ve done this for 26 years?"

YES, she said.

But, then she said, this year this plumber, took the time and found the real plumbing problem fixing the clog and the sink.

She was freed from sitting and waiting.

I learned two lessons from Linda.

What in our lives are we sitting and waiting to change?

When our job is to help someone, do we just do the job, or are we observant for other ways to help?