This week I want to tell you a quick story.
I was recently in a restaurant, having dinner at the bar. After about an hour of small talk with the bartender, a great guy named Bob, I mentioned Areena to him. Our conversation quickly went from small talk to big talk.
“My brother runs an assisted living facility in New Jersey,” he told me. “Every Saturday I used to go there and play piano in the meeting space. When I started there’d be two or three people watching. After a few months, I had everybody in the facility coming and giving requests.”
“One guy was a World War II vet who loved Sammy Davis Jr. After I was done playing I’d just sit and talk to the guy. When I got this gig bartending I couldn’t go anymore so every Saturday, at 2 o’clock, I’d call him and just talk for ten minutes. Went on for a few months. Then one day nobody answered.”
“My brother called me a few days later and told me the man passed away. He was sick the entire time I knew him but he never told me. I went to his wake because I felt I had to go and when I met his kids I introduced myself. Told them about playing piano and our conversations. His daughter started crying.”
At this point, Bob got a little choked up and fought back the tears by serving some people down the other end of the bar. I was on the edge of my seat. It took ten minutes for him to get back to me and finish the story but boy was it worth it.
“His daughter pulled a note out of her purse. She said the family had no idea what to do with it. But now they did.”
She handed me the note. It said, in perfect handwriting:
At my funeral, have Bob play ‘I Gotta Be Me’.
Bob walked away, fully choked up. What impact we can have on the lives of others by simply showing just a little compassion.
Art Gurwitz
Founder. Areena.
Author
