“One person can make a difference and every person should try.”
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Kelley lives in Texas and builds custom swimming pools for a living. Well, most of the time, anyway. With the economy putting a significant dent in his business and drain on his pocketbook, he has had to moonlight recently.
Now Kelley also repossesses cars.
One morning during the 2010 Christmas season, Kelley set out to a suburb of Dallas to repossess a vehicle for a used-car client.
Normally he prefers to go late at night or in the early hours of the morning so he can avoid trouble. After all, in his words, “It’s easier work if you don’t get caught.”
No doubt it’s also probably safer, as repossessing cars can be an emotionally charged situation for those on the “business end” of the transaction.
But on this particular day, Kelley didn’t have that luxury, as the dealer wanted the car repossessed immediately. So he set out to retrieve the vehicle. Arriving late in the morning, he spied the car in the driveway and planned to quietly slip in and be gone before anyone noticed.
But for some reason, today was different. He chose to knock on the door of the trailer first, something in his own admission he rarely ever does.
Connie Henderson answered his knock, not expecting the repo man. But then again, she wasn’t surprised either. After all, she had lost her job as an accounting clerk a month earlier. Living with her mom, Henderson had informed the car dealer she could not afford the payments until she got a job. But a deal was a deal and the car had to go. It’s the way the system works.
Henderson, never having had a car repossessed before, stood at the front door looking into the face of the man who was here to take her last significant earthly possession. She tried to be brave about it, knowing it was going to be a lot harder to find a job without wheels of her own. Quietly setting out to remove her personal possessions from the car, she began to share her personal situation with Kelley.
Kelley recalls being struck by how polite and kind she was to him, despite the fact he was here to take away her only means of transportation. As he was pulling out of the driveway, he remembers seeing Connie standing there, watching the vehicle drive away, large tears streaming down her face.
In that moment, although he had never felt this way before, Kelley knew he had to do something to help. Instead of simply doing his job as he had so many times before, he chose to risk deviating from his routine and accepted responsibility for leading the change he wanted to see in his surroundings.
Acting on this unexpected opportunity to build value into another’s life, he immediately called a friend who owned a used-car lot in the city, asking him if he had a good, reliable car he could sell him—cheap. As it turns out, he did. A 1990 Chevy Lumina in excellent shape.
He agreed to sell it at cost.
Kelley then set out to call other friends, inquiring if they would help donate money to pay for the car. One friend, a banker, seeing a side of Kelley he had never experienced, was glad to contribute to the worthy cause. Within hours, Kelley raised the money and was driving to pick up the used vehicle when his cell phone rang.
It was his car dealer friend.
“I’ve been thinking about the situation,” he said and “I’ll let you have the car. Just give her the money you’ve collected to help with Christmas.” Now holding back tears himself, Kelley called Henderson and told her the news. She couldn’t believe her ears.
“Never in my life did I think they were going to give me this car,” she later told a reporter. “And when he handed me a check, too? Who expects that?”
Although Kelley didn’t know what had initially prompted him to act, he is surely glad he did. For in that moment when he seized the initiative to positively influence outcomes in his surroundings, he affirmed we are all capable of being a force for good in our part of the world.
What opportunities might have you missed today to build value into someone’s life? More importantly, what opportunities exist right in front of you to do something that could brighten someone’s day or lightens someone load?
You never know. You might just be the miracle they’ve been praying for.
- Contact John Michel via email ( [email protected])
- Military Biography
