The Keeper

This post was inspired by an email I received recently. It was simply titled “Keeper.” I thought it was good and I forwarded it on to the keepers in my life. The email spoke of times gone by where we cared for things we loved, fixed them when they broke and didn’t throw them away until they were completely used up. It also mentioned people we keep in our lives because they are worth it, “like a best friend that moved away, or a classmate we grew up with.” This statement immediately brought to mind my husband Rick. He is a keeper of people. It’s one of the things I admire about him.

Anyone who knows Rick knows he loves to talk. This is his preferred method of communication, whether it be by phone or face to face. However, since discovering the internet, construction job chat rooms, and Facebook, he has expanded his modus operandi, but not by much.

The way Rick draws people out is by asking them questions, and twenty never seems to be enough. It can go on and on until he is satisfied or runs out of things to ask about. He’s a good listener too and doesn’t interrupt when you’re speaking. He is truly interested and learns a lot just by listening to what people have to say.

Rick keeps in touch with all kinds of people from high school friends, to people he’s worked with, to friends from church, and just about anyone else who’s crossed his path somewhere along the way. When we get ready to move from a place, he makes sure he gets telephone numbers from everyone he connected with. Then he’ll call them at some point to see how they are doing. Some people he speaks to weekly, others monthly, and some will only get an annual phone call so he can catch up on what’s going on with them. 

Rick also stays in touch with the Fullers and Flatts (Rick likes to say his mother was a Flatt until she became a Fuller, hehe). He will regularly call aunts and uncles to find out how they are, who’s sick or having surgery, what’s going on with his cousins, etc. This is something his Dad used to do, and since his Dad passed away, Rick has taken up the torch.

And Rick doesn’t just talk to people he knows, he’ll talk to anyone who’s standing close enough to hear him speak. Here is a recent example that is so typically Rick. Last weekend we went to a buffet restaurant to celebrate Rick getting a job. The line was very long to get in. As we stood there waiting with about 100 other people, Rick started up a conversation with an older couple and their family in front of us. After an hour in line (it was a really good buffet), the couple finally reached the cashier. Just before they left to be taken to their table, the woman hands me a piece of paper with their names and telephone number on it and tells me if we are ever in town again, to please call them. Wow!! That was a first!!

After we had gone through the buffet line and returned to our table, Rick points and says, “See that guy over there?”

“What guy?” I say as I look in the direction he’s pointing.

“The guy in the red shirt.”

Spotting a red shirted man I reply, “What about him?”

“He works at the steel mill for Halliburton making $24 an hour as a pipe fitter.”

“Where do you know him from?”

“I met him on the buffet line just now.”

“Is there anyone you won’t talk to?”

“No,” he replies with a grin.

Rick never meets a stranger. His likeable nature, his quick smile, his inquisitive mind with seemingly endless questions, along with his desire to listen makes it easy for people to talk to him and sometimes even share the most intimate details of their life; like the forty-something year old lady in the tire store last Friday who told Rick how her boyfriend of 20 years cheated on her, how she dumped him and then later was set up on a blind date with a man who was a preacher and now they are happily married. I could go on, but I think you get the picture.

Such is life with a talker for a mate. After twenty-one years, I would have it no other way. And that makes Rick a “keeper” for me.