Random Bits and Pieces: A Sort of Memoir by Rocky Rhoads

Author:Rocky Rhoads [Rhoads, Rocky]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Yielding Press
Published: 2020-02-25T22:00:00+00:00

MANUEL

One of my most unexpected relationships came with a man named Manuel. Let me set the scene. As I have mentioned, I grew up on what amounted to a small farm in the middle of town, which my dad took care of on the weekends after working his full-time job for the city. As my dad aged, and then herniated a disc, he needed help on the farm, so he hired a laborer named Manuel. Manuel had a wife and twelve children. They lived in a tiny, rundown house not far from us geographically but still a world away from our lower-middle-class neighborhood. I know my father thought of Manuel as a good man, hardworking and honest, a man to be trusted. He got him a job as a groundskeeper at City Hall. But, born in Kentucky in the late 1800s, Dad’s ideas of class were set. I don’t think he ever considered the idea of Manuel as a friend or thought of inviting him into our home. Manuel was hired help, and he had dark brown skin.

I was a kid in junior high who liked to hang out in the orchard. I got to know Manuel just talking to him there. He was a sweet man who loved his family deeply and who never complained about his life. I started taking Christmas goodies to his family but did it quietly. Something told me not to talk about this at home. When I went away to school, one of the first things I did on vacations at home was to head out back to find Manuel and say hello. He spoke very broken English, but the smile that lit his face when I came was all the welcome I needed.

After I married and lived out of state, Manuel’s wife died of cancer. My elderly parents sold the place and moved to Phoenix to be near my brother. The next time I went back to my hometown, I went to City Hall to try to find Manuel, but he had gotten too old for the job. I found no one at the old house where he had raised his family. We had never communicated except when I was home and went out to see him. Still, without knowing it, he mentored me in patience, acceptance, and understanding, perhaps more than anyone else in my life. I tell myself that those smiles he gave me meant I brought a little gladness to him. I hope so. He deserved so much more than a little gladness.

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