At a funeral service I attended, I was really impressed with what I heard about the life of the deceased, who I will call M. The service was very well attended by people from all over the county, indicating how well thought of the man had been.
This man was the one of the sons of a shepherd. He in turn was a shepherd. A short period in the RAF brought in into contact with the lady who became his wife. They returned to his home and produced a family that today, comprises of grandchildren and nine great grandchildren, very few of whom, had dry eyes during the service. The minister spoke of what the man had enjoyed in his life, his manual dexterity and his voracious appetite for reading. When M retired he returned to farm work.
It is what was not said the was so impressive. We knew, and so did the people who paid their last respects, that M spent a large part of his working life in an organisation that required absolute reliability and ability in the auditing of specialised working materials. His work had to be 100%, and some more. It was not just internally checked, the accounting had to be good enough for national and international review as well. The well-being of a large working community was dependent upon M's work and he unfailingly met the exacting standards of the challenge.
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He must have been truly a great man. Reliability these days is a rare virtue, people do demand it, but they seldom deliver it themselves. Sometimes I ask myself, why do I give my over 100%, while others get away with 50?
Anyway, may your friend rest in peace.
Hello MKL,
As is always the way, you find out these things late in the day. Not so, the people who knew and worked with this reliable shepherd. Truly great people are never known about in their lifetimes, it seems, and
few, rarely, after they have gone.
M's integrity and reliability is sorely missing in today's global structures, on which we depend.
Thank you for your thoughts.
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