Making a Difference

I was shopping with my daughter-in-law at The Home Depot last night and she thought that she recognized a worker as being the father of one of her students. She teaches disabled adults life skills in an attempt to have them lead a somewhat normal functioning life. Most of them never will, but nevertheless she gives it her all. When she approached the man and said who she was his face lit up. He began to tell her that she is such an important part of his daughter's life. He said that his daughter cannot wait to go to "work" every day because my daughter-in-law makes it so much fun. He continued to say that his daughter has no friends or social life away from "work" and that seeing her so happy Monday through Friday delights his family. He told her that his daughter speaks of her every day and loves her. When the conversation ended the man said he was going to call his daughter and tell her who he just met. He was as excited as a child, knowing that he was going to make someone else so happy. I watched this encounter and was so proud. Unfortunately, my daughter-in-law is actively looking for another job and as soon as she is offered one, she will leave. The supervisors at her job do not respect their workers and make it an upsetting environment to work in. She can no longer work in a place that treats their workers so poorly. That is the shameful part of this story. The people that will suffer will be the disabled. They will lose a teacher that loves them and would have stayed there forever, even making a salary far below what she deserves, because the company is run by incompetent, cruel people.