If you know me, you know that I have had more than my share of jobs over my working career. One of the benefits of having many jobs was the opportunity to meet more than the average number of people in the workplace. This is a story about two of the people that I worked with, two very special people.
It‘s a story about Vanessa and David. Vanessa is David's daughter. David is my friend. David is cool. David not only looks cool, David is cool. David does not get rattled. David is a Vietnam veteran. David has seen it all. David is successful in business. I wanted to be like David, at the very least I wanted to work with David.
I got my wish, I got to work with David. It was cool, very cool. I was still not cool, but the situation was cool. I will probably never be cool. If all of this were not good enough, I got to meet and work with David's daughter Vanessa. Vanessa was so cool that she almost made me forget about David!
Actually Vanessa was beyond cool, she was cool in addition to being the very best sales / service / she could fix anything person that I have ever worked with. For years in my position as an outside sales representative, I had only dreamed of working with an inside contact like Vanessa. Anyone in outside sales knows that you are only as good as your inside counterpart. Because of Vanessa, I got very good...overnight! It seemed too good to be true.
From a human perspective, it was too good to be true. Two years ago, just after Christmas, God took Vanessa home to heaven. By all human accounts, this did not seem right. She was too young, too beautiful, too good in our business, too well loved. By our understanding, Vanessa had too much more to live for.
I miss Vanessa. If I miss Vanessa, I cannot image how David, her father feels. We are praying for David. David is understandably rattled. David does not rattle easily, he has seen it all but this situation is beyond human comprehension.
Isaiah 55:8-9 says: "for My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways", says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. Easy to read but hard to live the reality that there are some things that we will never understand on this side of eternity. If we understood everything, we would be God. We are not God.
I want to close with something below that I wrote to Vanessa and David back in July 2014. David and I had just finished a few days on the road together visiting customers in the Northeast section of the country while Vanessa was back in the St. Louis office doing all of the real work, making David and I look good. The entire sales force was in the middle of a sales challenge to find 100 new customers, the winner would be the person that opened the most new accounts during the challenge. To no one's surprise, Vanessa won. Vanessa was a blessing. Enjoy the story below.
Once upon a time there were two old guys and one beautiful young expecting mother. The one old guy (with lots of hair) got on an airplane and met the other old guy (with no hair) and together they drove around for four days in the old guys car (the one with no hair). From time to time they would stop to talk to people and eat food and sleep in hotels. After each visit the one old guy (with lots of hair) would ask the prospects if we could have an order; not knowing how to respond most of the prospects gave them an order. The old guy with no hair was quite impressed. In the rare event that they didn't get an order they would get back in the car and call the beautiful young expecting mother and ask her to send a quote, make a phone call or just do what she always does to help out the two old guys.
At the end of the four days the two old guys went home and told their wives how smart they were and the beautiful young expecting mother went home and told her husband how she had to bail the two old guys out again this week.
When all the follow ups were done the two old guys and the beautiful young expecting mother got many new orders and accounts; the race to 100 was over and they all lived happily ever after…..goodnight.
I enjoyed reading this piece, Bill. And how sad that Vanessa is no longer in this life. How did it happen that she died when she was so young? How thankful we can be that our pathways cross with some people who, in their own unique and natural way, can be such a blessing to us. Thanks for sharing.