The Silence – Il Silenzio

April 01, 2009

The Silence – Il Silenzio

Welcome back my friends.

Today marks the end of a 19 year career as my plant has finally closed. I will be beginning my life anew at the proud age of 61. I am looking forward to early retirement. The possibilities are endless. I can spend far more time pursuing those things that are important to me like American Valor and Military Tributes.

That being said it still brings a tear to my eye as I contemplate these last 19 years. I’ve had a coworker die below me as I tried CPR without success. His heart had exploded and there was nothing that could be done to save him. I know that now but back then I carried a heavy burden and blamed myself. We’ve all been in that lonely foxhole before.

In that same time I have enjoyed the birth of five grandchildren and watched as my four beautiful children have matured into proud young adults, now approaching their own middle age.

I have spent the years separated from the only brother I have meeting rarely on the telephone as my two beautiful nieces have grown into young adults.

In that same 19 years I have buried my mother and father, mother-in-law and father-in-law.

I have seen in that time a stock market boom and a stock market bust that rivals the great depression, maybe worse.

It has been said that God never takes anything away from us but that he replaces it with something even better.

I am a failure of a man…but I have received salvation.

I have lost family but I have enjoyed the love of my wife going on 42 years.

The birth of these five grandchildren speaks volumes of miracles.

I have outlived most of the men I began working with…attending their funerals with the fear that I might be next.

I spent the last day of my career tying up loose ends. Actually yesterday was my last day, but the company has been good to me and I volunteered my services today as a thank you.

As my day was coming to an end and my heart was swelling with the memories both good and bad of these past years, I thought of my good friend Tom and all the support and friendship he had given me these past years. The feelings began to warm.

Then when I got home, my longtime friend John, always the comic, always jousting at the social windmills, sent me a video of a precious young girl playing the trumpet. Her song is "The Silence – Il Silenzio".

As I listened, the tears began to dry, my heart stopped pounding, the pressure disappeared, my mind cleared and I began to feel like I was just reborn into a new world full of hope.

Please take a few moments to listen to this. Appreciate the extreme talent God has given this child. Open your mind, open your heart and be prepared to undergo total rejuvenation.

…Dad