It was about 5 years ago when I was invited to the Re-Grand Opening of one of my clients stores. They had a very successful store that was damaged by a fire that swept through the neighborhood that also took down five other shops/stores on the same block. It took about 2 years to rebuilt, but with hard work on their part, financial backing they received from their insurance company and employees who gave up much of their after work hours to rebuilt the company they loved working for.
I initiated a relief fund to help out these people because I know what a great business they had and how much they loved running it and their employees they loved as family. I ran numerous raffles, and also set up with local merchants to take up some collections to help them get back on their feet again. They continued to pay their employees their regular salaries and even overtime while they ran part of their business at another location for a brief time.
We collected a lot of money and I even had several car dealers that were clients of mine donate cars for raffles as well. The owners did not want their employees to be without jobs and hand dipped into their own back account to help fix up the company and pay their employees salaries as well. It was a small company that employed 12 people but they were people that have been working for them since their company opened.
One of the employees Jim was a single father raising a little girl that had a slight learning disability which she was attending a special school where she was doing very well. His wife died at childbirth and he was fortunate enough to have family to help him with his daughter when he was at work and then when she was a little older, he was allowed to bring her to work whenever he didn't have someone to watch her. When his daughter was born, his wife bled to death and one of the instruments the doctor had used on her crushed her skull slightly which cased slight brain damage. She has the looks of a child with downs syndrome but she does not have it.
I have met with Jim several times and we always hit it off. We talked about work as well as our personal lives. One particular day he had his daughter with him and I fell in love with her. She was the most adorable little girl I ever saw and she took to me right away. I played with her for a while so her daddy could work with one of their most difficult customers. She wanted to come home with me and I said that she could if her dad would come too or if he needed to be somewhere, I would be happy to watch her for him. In fact, I offered to watch her anytime he needed someone. He said he didn't go out much because he loved spending as much time with his daughter as possible.
Alissa could wait to ask her dad if she could com to my house and I told him he was invited too and I would make us a dinner, Alissa favorite dinner if she would tell me what that was. Alissa asked for chicken nuggets and mashed potatoes with gravy. Jim said he would love to come but didn't want to put me out and I told him it wouldn't be a problem. I wrote down my address and phone numbers for him and then left to hit the supermarket for all the fixings and also bought some snacks for Alissa for after dinner. I had a collection of DVD's that she may like; I had always watched my best friends twins and I always was buying them movies and I still have the collection.