Monday, January 10, 2011
My friend C.W.
It really is a travesty to not realize how important or how much a person means to you until they fall ill, sick, or become inured, worse yet, are gone. This morning when I began to pray for my friend C.W., I began to cry because I realized how important he has been to me and how much he has taught me. C.W. is ill and has been recently hospitalized. He has been battling cancer for a while now, but you would never know it because he never mentions it. I would have never known about his cancer if it wasn’t for a mutual friend who told me.
See, C.W. isn’t prideful or embarrassed, he is the opposite. He doesn’t talk about himself because he is a humble man and he is always more concerned for others than himself. I met C.W. within my first week of recovery from Alcohol, and over the last couple of years, I have watched him treat all new comers the same way as he did with me. That is with open arms, compassion and encouragement. I have never heard him speak or complain of his cancer, though he has ever right to do so. Instead, C.W. is a man of few words, and of those few words, I have heard the same words from him over and over again, yet they have never gotten old. Whenever C.W. is called upon to speak in a meeting, he always opens with his name, followed by “I am an alcoholic- Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I was once lost, but now I am found, was blind but now I see.” And sometimes, he just leaves it at that. He once told me that when he first had gotten sober, he attended an AA meeting that was within a church. He said while he was waiting for the meeting to start, he picked up a hymnal and opened it, and right there, the first words he read, was that of Amazing Grace. Ever since then, he has repeated those same words he read over a decade ago every single time he is called upon to share. C.W. gets it…God help me to get it too.
It really is a travesty to not realize how important or how much a person means to you until they fall ill, sick, or become inured, worse yet, are gone. This morning when I began to pray for my friend C.W., I began to cry because I realized how important he has been to me and how much he has taught me. C.W. is ill and has been recently hospitalized. He has been battling cancer for a while now, but you would never know it because he never mentions it. I would have never known about his cancer if it wasn’t for a mutual friend who told me.
See, C.W. isn’t prideful or embarrassed, he is the opposite. He doesn’t talk about himself because he is a humble man and he is always more concerned for others than himself. I met C.W. within my first week of recovery from Alcohol, and over the last couple of years, I have watched him treat all new comers the same way as he did with me. That is with open arms, compassion and encouragement. I have never heard him speak or complain of his cancer, though he has ever right to do so. Instead, C.W. is a man of few words, and of those few words, I have heard the same words from him over and over again, yet they have never gotten old. Whenever C.W. is called upon to speak in a meeting, he always opens with his name, followed by “I am an alcoholic- Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I was once lost, but now I am found, was blind but now I see.” And sometimes, he just leaves it at that. He once told me that when he first had gotten sober, he attended an AA meeting that was within a church. He said while he was waiting for the meeting to start, he picked up a hymnal and opened it, and right there, the first words he read, was that of Amazing Grace. Ever since then, he has repeated those same words he read over a decade ago every single time he is called upon to share. C.W. gets it…God help me to get it too.
