Brian Carlisle, San Marcos, Texas

This past Friday night I went to a gathering at the Boruff's house in celebration of the twenty ninth birthday of their son Jeff. There were not too many people there - maybe twenty - and this kid walks up to me and introduces himself. I say kid - he was probably twenty nine as Jeff would have been. He says is your name Carl? Did you used to be a cop? Yes I say. "I don't know if you remember me or not but I used to work at Wendy's when I was in High School. You used to come though there now and then and we would talk. You got me a job at Outback." And then it came to me. This fellow was trying to make a living and just wasn't. He was nice enough and was trying to work himself into a better life. This was probably fifteen years ago. Anyhow, I was able to get him hired at Outback Steak House as a cook - which is what he wanted to be - and that was that. But it changed his life and he got more hours, leaned more things and made more money. I remember stopping in there as well and would stick my head in the kitchen and say hello when he was working.

It's a small story, but he still remembered it and thanked me again.
CD