The group that attended that kindergarten has continued to be friends throughout the years. We don’t see each other often but when we do we pick right up where we left off last. We have common roots.
Will and Mike Crawley were part of that group and have always been very close friends of mine. They are identical twins and were born a couple of weeks after me. I went through 12 years of school with them and we have stayed in touch through the years.
The Crawley twins grew to be big strong, burly guys. Somebody nicknamed them Big Hippo and Little Hippo. Everybody knows the Hippo brothers. They definitely made their mark on central Georgia as they were reaching for adulthood.
Mike has worked at the Medical Center in Macon for years. He started as a Paramedic with the ambulance service there and ended up becoming a Registered Nurse. Everybody at the Medical Center knows Mike Crawley.
A number of years ago Mike had back surgery. Mike came to Reynolds to recuperate and there was a period of time that Mike could not get out of bed on his own. I went by the house at least twice a day to help get him up so he could walk as was required for his recovery.
Several years later I got a call from Will that Mike was about to have heart bypass surgery. I left immediately for the hospital and waited in the waiting room with their family until we heard from the doctors and knew he was okay.
Just making the point about our lifelong friendship.
And why the rest of this story is important to me.
Will left college to start a landscaping business. He successfully ran that business for many years. A few years ago, Will began to have some physical problems. Because of some strange hereditary reason, his liver went bad.
I made it my business to stay in touch with him and made trips to Reynolds as often as possible to visit with him and check on him. There were many people in Reynolds who rallied around him during this time.
His twin brother Mike was amazing during that illness. He looked after his brother. And he used every resource available to him to do everything he could to make sure his brother had a chance to get better.
It did not look good. Every visit to Reynolds I could tell Will was getting worse. I knew unless a miracle happened he would not be with us long.
During his illness Will became an inspiration to many. He never gave up and always kept an upbeat attitude. He had a strong faith. And his faith made everybody around him stronger.
But I knew in my heart unless a miracle happened he would not be with us much longer.
The miracle happened.
Through the grace of God and a persistent brother in the medical field, Will received a liver transplant. I visited him at Emory University Hospital a couple of days after that transplant. I found out during that visit that Will had gotten back on his feet as quickly as anyone who had that surgery at Emory Hospital.He was a new person. And just as his health declined so quickly for months on end, now his health was improving just that quickly.
I saw him at a wedding a few weeks ago and he asked me to feel the muscle in his arm. It was as hard as a rock. I couldn’t help remember that just a few short months ago he was as weak as one could be.
Will also decided to go back to school and finish his college education and get his degree. And he is pursuing that now just as hard as he pursued getting well when nobody gave him much of a chance.
Will is a walking miracle. And he is very grateful for another shot at life.
There is a lesson here for all of us.
No matter how hopeless our situation and helpless we feel about it, we never should lose hope.
And we should never give up.
You never know.
When we least expect it a miracle could be waiting right around the corner.
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