The Great Gadfly

Score one for the Good Guys

This a short story but oh, so gratifying

I know a fellow who has built a very successful family business over the last thirty years. One sign of his character is the number of employees who have been with him for a long time... many. Unfortunately he is about to lose one of them.

A while ago someone who had worked closely with this man in his office for a decade and a half was diagnosed with untreatable lung cancer. Unable to continue working this person went home to die. The end will come in six months to a year. The application was made to social security since income is still needed for this person to die at home... to own a home still when the end comes. But, social security said it would take five months or more to respond to the claim.

"I am going to pay her until the day she dies. I cannot do anything else and I will not watch her go down the tubes."So, our cold hearted capitalist kept his valued former employee on the payroll so that bills are paid, the home remains and life goes on as well as it can. Then, social security responded that since the applicant was still being paid...there would be no government money. The fact that this person has paid into the social secutity system for thirty years, has never worked 'under the table' and has always played by the rules seems to make no difference.

What can you say about a man who does this: even though he is now paying one his highest earning employees while that person can no longer work and even though he has no way of knowing exactly how long this will continue... his words to me yesterday were, "I am going to pay her until the day she dies. I cannot do anything else and I will not watch her go down the tubes."

It is a privilege to know such a man.