My job enables me to socialize and get to know people on a daily basis, I have a couple of senior care centers where I get to spend a few minutes a day talking to anyone that’s in the general area while I deliver. I’ve gotten to know a gentleman there on nothing more than a friendly basis but we talk and laugh for a few minutes each day, and I’ve offered to take him fishing anytime he feels up to it.
He never accepts but always thanks me for asking and says he has stories and can teach me a thing or 2 if I ever have time to listen. Tonight I took the time to visist him after work, he was right…he has stories….he made me laugh, think about things I’ll never see or get to do….showed me pictures of some of his many fine catches…and we just talked about 2 hours. His eyes and hands don’t work as good as they used to so I wasn’t able to see how he tied his knots or how he made do with what he had compared to today’s technology but it was incredible to see him smile and his face light up as he spoke about growing up on the river.
Ok to make a long story short, he was tired so I was getting ready to leave and he says to me …..hey kid btw….I’m 51….take this box with you, I told him I don’t need anything but thanks…..so he says happy birthday take the box, told him my birthday isn’t until Oct…he smiles and said..I might be dead by then take the damn box…..So I did, I opened it when I got home and it has Rapalas in it, old raps they look like 11’s and 13’s but all are in cardboard boxes, never used, probably never even opened until tonight, the glue on the boxes is gone so they slide right open man these things are in perfect condition 42 total.
It would be nice to keep them, but I can’t they are probably worth a small fortune, I can’t sell them and I know I’ll never have the heart to use them. I know he has no family around here but will I break his heart if I give them back? It’s a great gesture on his part to give them to me I just don’t feel worthy of such a gift, what would you do?
