Skills and Service
In my newsletter last week, I wrote about the importance of skills.?I learned that lesson firsthand from my grandfather, Allison A. Bailes, Sr, a consummate tradesman. He was an electrician, plumber, and HVAC installer and repairman. At home, he was a carpenter, gardener, and family man.?
Pap-paw was the best grandfather I could have asked for.?He taught me about tools, electricity, HVAC, gardening, humility, service, and more.?He was a wonderful man and an excellent role model. That's him in the photo above...and me photobombing when I was probably about 15. The photo below is Pap-paw (right) in his shop sometime before I was born.
I visited his grave (and many others) this weekend when I went back to Louisiana for my Uncle Dickie's funeral.?I heard lots of stories that reminded me of Pap-paw's unwavering devotion to family.?
He and his older brother, Uncle T, for example, quit high school to start working so their three younger brothers could go to college. That's how he and Uncle T ended up in the trades, while the younger brothers became lawyers and administrators.?One of those younger brothers even became a judge on the Louisiana Supreme Court and his son is a famous neurosurgeon played by Alec Baldwin in the movie,?Concussion.
领英推荐
Another example of his selflessness is what he was doing the day he died in 1984.?He and my grandmother bought and delivered groceries every week for an elderly lady in town.?He had just left the grocery store with her stuff when he had an aneurysm.
My uncle Dickie also taught me many things about life, and I was lucky to be able to spend my teenage summers sitting between the two of them in the Bailes Electric truck (above). Developing skills was one of the things I learned. The most important lesson I learned, however, was to see those skills as tools for helping others.
All the best,
~ Allison