Special Thanks, To A Fading Friend

I found out some bad news yesterday about a friend of mine. My friend Stacie left a voicemail on my cell phone to give me the bad news. I had goosebumps all over when I heard the news.

My friend Al Bruno had been potting some new perennials with another employee from Good Earth garden center all morning long. The other employee had to leave him for awhile to get her hair cut. When she had arrived back to the plant farm she found Al lying on the ground not making any type of movement at all. When she got to him he was somewhat alert and was making no sense in his speech at all. Al had suffered a severe stroke and had lost all movement on one side of his body.

Al is one of my mentors in the plant industry, he taught me a lot about plants. I had to learn their Latin names because that is all he called them by. I only knew them by their common name,but because of Al that changed.

The three years I spent at The Good Earth I was Al's perennial potting partner. Some times we were back at the potting table 9 or 10 hours a day. Especially in the Fall when our big shipment of spring perennials came in. He talked all the time about his life and his career and his travels. I always looked forward to working with Al. He always brought donuts every morning to the store and would get on me and Stacie about how we would eat all the donuts. He didn't know how much seeing his donut bag on the counter meant to us. We knew Al would be at the store to tease us and tell us some more stories.

Al used to manage the Good Earth for many years so he knew every inch of that place and he knew how to motivate young "ding-dongs" like me and Stacie. It would bug him on the weekends when we were slow and everybody kind of used Saturdays as a break from the rough work week. He would say "If I ran this place still I would work the heck out of you young guys, there would be no standing around." I would re-butt back by saying jokingly, "You're no longer in power so back off, pal."

Al was the fastest perennial potter I ever saw, he could work circles around me. By the time I had three potted he'd have ten ready. He was in his early 80's when I first met him and worked like a 20 year old. He had bad attitude about lazy workers and would send you off if you didn't keep up or talk. It took me a couple of days to learn his process and I never got sent away. He talked fast, worked fast and smoked his pipe very slow. What a character!

Stacie called me today and told me Al was not going to make it. His lungs were filling with fluid and he had lost the ability to cough. I don't know if Al has left this world yet, but if he has may he leave knowing he was loved and truly respected by many.

The only thing I never knew about Al was if he was a believer in God. I don't know, because I never asked and it probably never came up in our conversations. That's to my shame, to know the many hours I worked with him and I never asked the most important question of all.

To know we have the ability and power to ask a great question. "Do you believe in God?" How hard is that for us to ask? It's time to come out of our shell and ask the saving question and then a follow up question. Do you believe in God? If "NO" then the follow up question should be. Do you want me to show you how?

I will give an update tomorrow about Al and how things are going. The doctors gave him an hour to 72 hours to remain with us. Have a good day!