Some people wait, while others live. Vincent, my old, lonely friend, was the second type. Every day, he would sit in his wheelchair and stare at the road as if he were waiting for something that never came. I never saw him smile or hear him say more than a word until our worlds met.<\/p>\n
When you drop your kids off at school, do you ever just\u2026 stare in your car? It\u2019s like the weight of everything\u2014bills, clothes, dinner, and life itself\u2014is sitting on your chest, daring you to do something.<\/p>\n
One morning, I had one of those times. When I felt like I was just\u2026 surviving, I was sitting there with my hands on the driving wheel and asking myself, \u201cWhat\u2019s the point of anything?\u201d<\/p>\n
I got over it. Since that\u2019s what moms do. We get over it, keep going, and shake it off.<\/p>\n
But that day, for some reason, I thought about a man who had once told me that life DOES have a point. That you are important, even when you don\u2019t think you are.<\/p>\n
Vincent was his name, and he NEVER SMILED.<\/p>\n
When my dad died, I packed up my life and moved into his old house with my two boys, Ashton (12) and Adam (14), who are always being bad. We had it, even though it wasn\u2019t much.<\/p>\n
I found Adam crying in his new room with an old picture of his grandpa the night we moved in. He said in a whisper, \u201cI miss him, Mom.\u201d \u201cAnd sometimes\u2026 sometimes I miss my dad too.\u201d Yet I know I should not do it.<\/p>\n
My heart hurt as I pulled him close. \u201cHey, it\u2019s okay to miss him.\u201d I understand how you feel, sweetheart.<\/p>\n
Adam\u2019s voice cracked as he said, \u201cBut he left us.\u201d \u201cHe picked \u201cher\u201d over us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even though my heart hurt, I said, \u201cThat\u2019s his loss.\u201d \u201cBecause of Ashton and you?\u201d \u201cYou are the best thing that will ever happen to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Years ago, my husband skipped town and picked another woman over us. He always paid child support, but he never remembered birthdays, holidays, or even to say, \u201cHey, how are my kids?\u201d<\/p>\n
As a child, my mother left me, so I knew not to depend on anyone. Now it was just the three of us against the world.<\/p>\n
Then there was my friend Vincent.<\/p>\n
His house was next to ours and was always quiet. Besides going to the store for food, he never had anyone over or went anywhere else. He sat in his wheelchair on his porch and looked out at the road as if he were waiting for something that never came.<\/p>\n
When I see him, I\u2019d say, \u201cGood morning.\u201d<\/p>\n
He would say, \u201cMorning.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was no more to our relationship after that. \u201cGood morning,\u201d \u201chello,\u201d and \u201chi\u201d\u2026 not a thing else.<\/p>\n
I thought this was how life would be\u2014being a mother and housewife, with days that blur together and nothing but quiet.<\/p>\n
Until my boys did something I had told them they couldn\u2019t do for years.<\/p>\n
They screamed through the door while I was washing the dishes.<\/p>\n
\u201cMom, look at what we found!\u201d Ashton yelled while holding a bunch of fur that was moving around.<\/p>\n
A cute German Shepherd dog wriggled in between them. Its big ears flopped and its tail wiggled like it belonged. I was shocked as Ashton carefully put the baby down on the floor.<\/p>\n
\u201cExcuse me?\u201d \u201cWhere did you get that?\u201d I blink and ask, already fearing the answer.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was free,\u201d Adam quickly added. \u201cThis woman was giving them away.\u201d She said, \u201cThey\u2019d end up in a shelter if no one took them.\u201d<\/p>\n
I put my arms together. \u201cAnd you thought that getting a puppy would help?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s not big!\u201d Ashton dragged on. \u201cHe\u2019s not going to eat much.\u201d<\/p>\n
I laughed. \u201cYeah, buddy, I was that little too.\u201d \u201cSee how that turned out?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease, Mom!\u201d Adam asked for help. \u201cWe\u2019ll take care of him.\u201d There is nothing you need to do.<\/p>\n
This is when Ashton gave me the puppy dog eyes. \u201cPlease, Mom.\u201d You\u2019ll love him\u2026 \u201cI love him so much.\u201d<\/p>\n
It made me think of my youth dreams of having a dog, which were dashed when my mother moved out and took our family pet with her.<\/p>\n
\u201cMom?\u201d It was hard to hear Ashton. \u201cDo you remember what Grandpa said?\u201d The idea that every house needs a heartbeat<\/p>\n
I held my breath. Dad had always wanted us to have a dog, but I was afraid of getting attached and losing the dog.<\/p>\n
I sighed and looked at the dog. He wasn\u2019t very big, and his ears were too big for his head. His tail was wagging like he loved us more than anything else. It was too many for me.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is his name?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cSher!\u201d Ashton said it.<\/p>\n
Adam replied, \u201cNo way.\u201d \u201cHe looks like a Lion King.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMom, tell me which one is better.\u201d<\/p>\n
I rubbed my forehead. \u201cGuys, I don\u2019t know, he looks like a\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n
The dog gave a short bark.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s Simba!\u201d What I chose.<\/p>\n
Ashton made a noise. Adam pumped his fist. That was it, Simba was ours.<\/p>\n
Two weeks later, Vincent\u2019s voice was heard for the first time other than our normal hellos as we walked Simba down the street.<\/p>\n
\u201cMiss, may I say something?\u201d<\/p>\n
I turned around, shocked. Sitting on his fence, he watched us. Watching Simba, to be exact.<\/p>\n
After some thought, I walked over and waved my hand. \u201cYes?\u201d<\/p>\n
It was him who said, \u201cI used to train German Shepherds.\u201d \u201cWhen I was in the military.\u201d<\/p>\n
I felt a dull pain in my chest when he said \u201cused to.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also asked, \u201cWould it be okay if I pet him?\u201d<\/p>\n
When I said yes, Vincent rolled himself forward. He reached out with a rough, worn-down hand. Something changed as soon as his fingers touched Simba\u2019s fur.<\/p>\n
He made a face.<\/p>\n
He never smiled before.<\/p>\n
He asked, \u201cMay I give him a treat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOkay.\u201d<\/p>\n
He leaned his chair toward his house, but I heard a loud CRASH before he could get through the door. I rushed inside. His chair was slouched, and a broken bowl of cookies was lying at his feet.<\/p>\n
He said, \u201cI\u2019m fine,\u201d but his hands were shaking.<\/p>\n
I said softly as I kneeled next to him, \u201cNo, you\u2019re not.\u201d \u201cThat\u2019s fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
The sadness in his eyes that had been hidden for years met mine. He said in a whisper, \u201cSometimes I forget.\u201d \u201cI still use my legs and reach for things the way I used to.\u201d His voice broke.<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t bother me, so I grabbed a broom. I saw the pictures on the walls at that point. A dozen of them.<\/p>\n
Vincent while he was younger and in uniform. He was standing next to strong, well-behaved Shepherds who were jumping over things, standing at attention, and waiting for orders.<\/p>\n
I turned around and looked at him again. He couldn\u2019t take his eyes off of one picture\u2014a younger Vincent standing in the middle of a field with five Shepherds around him and his hand raised in the air.<\/p>\n
He pointed to the biggest dog and said, \u201cThat\u2019s Shadow.\u201d \u201cShe saved my life twice while I was in the army.\u201d The last time\u2026 He took a deep breath. \u201cThe last time, her life cost us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI miss it,\u201d he said, his voice full of something real. \u201cI lived for dogs.\u201d My family. \u201cEverything I have.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t marry,\u201d he said after some thought. Didn\u2019t want children. Didn\u2019t think they had to. \u201cThey were enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was it after the accident,\u201d he said in a low voice.<\/p>\n
I took a deep breath and looked at his legs. I already knew what had happened. Even though he was still here, his life was over. That\u2019s when it clicked.<\/p>\n
If you could, could you help my boys train Simba? I asked.<\/p>\n
He looked at me with surprise. \u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly you know as much as I do about Shepherds.\u201d Teach them, Vincent, and teach me too.<\/p>\n
\u201cI-I don\u2019t know\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n
I told him, \u201cI do.\u201d \u201cThis is what you NEED.\u201d<\/p>\n
His eyes got teary. \u201cWhy?\u201d \u201cWhy would you want to help an old man who is hurt?\u201d<\/p>\n
I thought about my own scars and said, \u201cBecause no one\u2019s broken.\u201d \u201cEveryone is just waiting to feel whole again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vincent had white, curled fingers that were on the wheelchair arms. His chin moved like he was trying to swallow something heavy as he looked at me for a long time.<\/p>\n
He tiredly said, \u201cI don\u2019t know if I can still do this.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s been years.\u201d<\/p>\n
I took a step closer. \u201cTry it.\u201d<\/p>\n
I had never seen anything like the hope, desire, and fight in his eyes between wanting to believe and being too afraid to. After letting out a last breath, he closed his eyes for a moment, as if he were making peace with something inside him.<\/p>\n
He said, \u201cAll right.\u201d \u201cI\u2019ll do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even though my eyes hurt, I forced a smile to come out.<\/p>\n
Vincent joined our lives after that day. He sat in our yard every afternoon and taught my boys orders, consequences, and rewards.<\/p>\n
\u201cAdam, use a firm voice, not an angry one.\u201d Simba pays attention to confidence, not fear.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll right, Ashton, but don\u2019t give my treats too often.\u201d He needs to follow the rules without expecting to be paid.<\/p>\n
Adam broke down in tears one day while training because Simba wouldn\u2019t listen. \u201cI\u2019m not strong enough to do this!\u201d \u201cI\u2019m not good enough!\u201d<\/p>\n
Vince walked over, and his voice was soft but firm. \u201cLook at me, son.\u201d Do you know why I loved working with Shepherds? Because they\u2019re just like people\u2026 Above all, they need someone who believes in them and is patient and understanding. The same way I believe in you.<\/p>\n
Simba slowly changed from a hyperactive puppy to a smart, well-behaved dog. What about my boys? They also got stronger and more responsible as they grew.<\/p>\n
Oh, and Vincent? He came back to life. His life, which had been empty and lonely before, had meaning, happiness, and something he thought He\u2019d lost forever.<\/p>\n
He rolled up to my porch one morning with a book in his hand.<\/p>\n
He gave it to me and said, \u201cI wrote this years ago.\u201d \u201cA guide to making Shepherds behave.\u201d<\/p>\n
I turned the old pages and read his careful notes that he had written by hand.<\/p>\n
With his eyes on Simba, he said, \u201cYou gave me back something I thought I had lost.\u201d<\/p>\n
It hurt my throat. I said in a whisper, \u201cWe should\u2019ve met sooner.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said, \u201cMaybe we met at the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n
I agreed and swallowed the lump in my throat. Vincent was no longer just a friend. He was family. And just maybe, we had saved each other.<\/p>\n
The next year, I was sitting in my car after leaving my kids off at school. I wasn\u2019t looking into nothing this time, though. I saw Vincent in his front yard putting up an agility course for Simba\u2019s training in the afternoon.<\/p>\n
Adam sent me a text message that said, \u201cMom, don\u2019t forget tomorrow is Vincent\u2019s birthday.\u201d Could you do something extra?\u201d<\/p>\n
I laughed as I thought about how Vincent had helped Ashton with his history project about military service dogs the week before. He had stayed up late telling stories about his time in the service, his voice full of both pride and pain.<\/p>\n
That night, at our weekly family dinner, I saw Vincent laugh out loud at one of Adam\u2019s jokes. The corners of his eyes got wrinkled. He saw Simba lying at his feet, loving and protecting him, just like the lions in the old pictures.<\/p>\n
\u201cI used to think God had forgotten about me,\u201d Vincent said as the boys cleaned up. Being in that chair and seeing life go by\u2026 I believed I was done. He didn\u2019t forget, though. He was just ready to send me what I needed at the right time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat was that?\u201d I asked, but I already knew the answer.<\/p>\n
With tears in his eyes, he reached across the table and squeezed my hand. \u201cFamily.\u201d A reason. \u201cAnother reason to smile.\u201d<\/p>\n
I just nodded with tears of happiness in my eyes. Vince taught us that every end can be the start of something new. That his wheelchair was no longer a jail, but just a place for him to sit at the family table.<\/p>\n
What about me? Those early morning times in the car were different. I no longer had to wonder what the point was because I knew it: love was the point. Family was the point. The point was to find your own meaning by helping other people find theirs.<\/p>\n
And sometimes the goal was to make a soldier who was hurt smile again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Some people wait, while others live. Vincent, my old, lonely friend, was the second type. Every day, he would sit in his wheelchair and stare at the road as if he were waiting for something that never came. I never saw him smile or hear him say more than a word until our worlds met. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28705"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28706,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28705\/revisions\/28706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}