Wilbur Jake Robinson
December 11, 1917 to December 4, 2003
letter from daughter, Jan Robinson Storms
July 7, 2002
Hi gang,
I want to share an interesting experience that happened yesterday concerning my Dad. We were in Stillwater, Eva Lee, Dad, Mom and myself at the Hastings Book Store. We got there minutes before it opened. As I pulled in, I noticed an old beat up pickup on my right. A young man was standing by the passenger door. We got out of the van to go into the store, and Eva, who was helping Mom, said “Watch the step, Mom”. As I walked by the pickup, the young man was on his knees at the edge of the sidewalk. He said, “That is right, watch this step.”
Eva, Mother and I walked to the door. We asked the young man if he was all right. I opened the first door for the folks to walk in. Eva and Mom came in, but Dad walked over and stood by the young man. Four or five middle aged men walked right by the man. A couple of them asked if he was okay.
I stood at the front door and watched my Dad hold out his hand to help the young man up. When the gentleman stood up, I realized that he was a cerebral palsy person. His walk on his crippled legs was very unstable. Dad helped him to the door and stopped him from falling hard. He helped him up gain. I held the doors open and let the man come inside. He got a shopping cart to stabilize his balance.
Dad said to him, “Now, that will help you be a handy man with gathering up books”. “No”, said the young man, “you are the handy man. Thank You!”
I bought the books Kelsey needed for AP English withing 5 or 10 minutes. As I was checking out, I noticed the beat up pickup was gone and so was the young man.
I learned a wonderful lesson from my 84 year old Father. You are never too old or young to show compassion and love to another person. As I was driving home, I was thinking about how Dad was the only one that reached out to the man. The song about angels came on the radio, and I had a gut feeling that my Daddy held his hand out to an angel God had sent. He wanted to see who would help this stranger in need.
May we also show that kind of compassion to our fellow man. I just wanted to share my story with you.
God’s peace and blessings to all.
Love,
Jan
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