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Good Things are Coming


"Good Things are Coming"

I stared down at the carefully written chalk letters on the sidewalk under my feet.  I was on a walk during my break, and I wondered why someone wrote such a message.

I continued on my way.

"Good Things are Coming"

'Are they?'  I asked myself as I rounded the corner to head around the block and head back toward my office.  'Are they really?'  It's so hard to be positive sometimes.  I'll admit, I felt a little irritated at the blind, uninformed, and baseless hopeful message.  'How could you know?  You don't know.'

"Good Things are Coming"

I walked into the parking lot of my office building, and I saw someone leaving the place.  The man's face was red, he wore a frown, and he stormed across the parking lot to his car.  I caught a glimpse of a wadded piece of paper in his hand.

'Lab bill.'  I know that blue, yellow and white form well.  I am the guy patients come to when they have a dispute, or when there's an error.  The sidewalk prognosticator was wrong.  This was like the opposite of a good thing.

"Excuse me, sir?"  I flagged the man down as he's about to get into his beat up Toyota.  "Did someone help you?"

"No," he growled.  He held the bill up, presumably so I could see, but he shook it around so much I couldn't read it.  "Nobody in there knows what to do, and now even with my insurance, I've got a six hundred dollar bill for my lab tests."  He shook his head.  "I never would have agreed to get them if I knew how much they'd cost."  I noticed that the man was dressed in clean, but worn clothes.  His hands were wide from years of manual labor of some sort.  I got it.  He was someone who couldn't afford that cost.

"Well, can I ask you to come back inside?"  I stepped forward and extended my hand.  "I'm Wayne.  I'm our Lab Manager.  Maybe there's a way I can help you with this."

He blinked, then he gripped my hand.  "Gerald."  From that distance I saw the worry on his face.  "I really hope you can help, because I don't know how I'll pay it."

I took him inside and up to my office.  We sat, and I looked through his chart, dug up his financial information that we had on file.  Turned out there was an error when he was registered and his insurance wasn't correct.  After some phone calls with his updated insurance information, the amount he owed on his lab bill dropped to $72.

I walked him out to his car.  There, he shook my hand again.  "Thank you."  I could tell he was relieved.  "You turned a terrible day into a good one.  So, thank you."

I waved and smiled as he drove away.  I turned to go back into the building, and then realization slammed into me and I barked a laugh.

"Good Things are Coming"

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19 Comments


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Wayne Gray

Posted

4 minutes ago, Mikiesboy said:

Im glad you could help....and i hope you and the sidewalk are right.

Me too.  I know you're often in the same sort of position - where you're able to make a difference to a person through your work.  This particular situation stuck out in my mind, thanks to that message on the sidewalk.  I guess it's funny the things that make us think.

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Wayne Gray

Posted

1 minute ago, Parker Owens said:

This is an awesome thing to share. Thank you for writing it out. 

Thanks, Parker.

It was nice to be able to help someone.  And... it was nice to be someone's "Good Thing".  🙂

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chris191070

Posted

Awesome thing to share, glad you could help make someone’s day good. Good things are coming.

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Mikiesboy

Posted

5 hours ago, Wayne Gray said:

Me too.  I know you're often in the same sort of position - where you're able to make a difference to a person through your work.  This particular situation stuck out in my mind, thanks to that message on the sidewalk.  I guess it's funny the things that make us think.

Sometimes i can ...

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Defiance19

Posted

Oh, that is just amazing, and wonderful! Glad you were able to help, Wayne. 

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Wayne Gray

Posted

2 minutes ago, Defiance19 said:

Oh, that is just amazing, and wonderful! Glad you were able to help, Wayne. 

Thanks, Def.  Me too.  🙂

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Wayne Gray

Posted

3 hours ago, chris191070 said:

Awesome thing to share, glad you could help make someone’s day good. Good things are coming.

Thanks, Chris.  Yeah.  Good Things ARE coming!  🙂

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Thorn Wilde

Posted

This kind of made me tear up, lol! I hope you realise what a wonderful human being you are, Wayne. 

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Reader1810

Posted

Wayne, this is wonderful and so are you. This made me smile and brought tears to my eyes. 

 I work in the medical field as well, and have to say there is nothing better than being able to relieve the burden of a patient and/or family member, no matter what that burden may be. 

Thanks for sharing this with the rest of us.

:hug: 

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Wayne Gray

Posted

4 hours ago, Thorn Wilde said:

This kind of made me tear up, lol! I hope you realise what a wonderful human being you are, Wayne. 

Thank you.  Though, honestly this would not have been a blog entry without the sidewalk message.  Helping with these problems is what I do.  It’s not exactly my job, not really.  I could have bounced this guy to our Member Services dept to get some help.  But that sucks.  I could help, and I did.  That’s all.  ❤️

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Wayne Gray

Posted

3 hours ago, Reader1810 said:

Wayne, this is wonderful and so are you. This made me smile and brought tears to my eyes. 

 I work in the medical field as well, and have to say there is nothing better than being able to relieve the burden of a patient and/or family member, no matter what that burden may be. 

Thanks for sharing this with the rest of us.

:hug: 

Thanks for commenting, Reader.  You work in the field, so you know.  Bills from healthcare suck.  Bills from stuff we need to live... that is something I despise.

We all just do what we can.

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Reader1810

Posted

33 minutes ago, Wayne Gray said:

Thank you.  Though, honestly this would not have been a blog entry without the sidewalk message.  Helping with these problems is what I do.  It’s not exactly my job, not really.  I could have bounced this guy to our Member Services dept to get some help.  But that sucks.  I could help, and I did.  That’s all.  ❤️

Still, I bet you made that guy's day. 

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