Covid Journal, Day 97: Louie

63 and cloudy this morning, but turned into a pretty, humid day. Larry planted the pumpkin patch today.

There were these three junk riding mowers. Funny how those things can pile up. The first one we bought new; it quit running in the middle of the summer in 2018, so we bought a used John Deere--that proved to be a very bad idea. Our oldest son also had a broken-down John Deere, so he brought it to Larry. The idea was to make one good one from two junk ones. Right. You can see how that went. So last spring we bought a new mower, and these three sat. At least they were out of sight, behind a building in the woods. Larry tried for a while to get one running, but finally gave up and agreed to sell them for whatever he could get for them.

He hauled them out of the woods with the tractor and took photos. Today I decided to list them on Facebook, so I posted the photos in an ad. In one minute I had a response...and another, and another and another and...who knew old mowers could be such hot commodities?

The first caller promised her man and some helpers were on the way, so I put off the others and waited. After a while (and several calls for directions) a truck pulled down the driveway. I saw three men inside, and a trailer on the back.

Then the truck door opened, and a thin, bent man hopped out. Next I saw a walker. Oh, elderly, I thought. But no, this man was about the same age as my older sons.

"Hi, I'm Louie," he said. "Come about the mowers?" His buddies Shane and Roger got out of the truck too. I showed them where the mowers were and all three made their way over the rough ground to look them over.

"I work on 'em." Louie said. "I take 'em and rebuild them so they're good as new."

Really, I thought? In your condition?

"I'm a tree trimmer," Louie said. "That's how I got my back broke, a top came out and got me. I was paralyzed for three years. But now I can get around with this thing. I still do tree work too."

"How in the world do you do that?" I asked.

"You oughta see him," Roger spoke up. "He's like a dad-burned monkey, crawls up the trees and swing around in the branches. He can do anything."

I was amazed. This man could be sitting back and feeling sorry for himself, but instead he had not one, but two occupations! The three of them looked over the mowers, made me an offer, and Roger and Shane set to work loading while Louie and I talked.

"I guess the Lord thought I needed to be living a different life. I don't mean to be putting God on anybody, but I think he just set me on a better path. I used to ride a Harley, drink and smoke weed, all that. I had to get myself off those Fentanyl patches, the doctors kept giving them to me, but I knew I was getting hooked. So for nine days I laid in the bed and sweated, I'll tell you it's the hardest thing I ever done. But I did it."

Sometimes our paths cross the most amazing people. They're not famous, in the news or wealthy, just ordinary people doing extraordinary things. I feel blessed to have met Louie and his friends. I will think of him whenever I start complaining about my aches and pains. Compared to him, I've got nothing to complain about.

And we will probably have him come back with Roger, to take out that big dangerous tree in our front yard. I'll be sure to take pictures because I bet it will be something to see.



Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.