My cousin’s husband, Gid, was the kind of person who always made you laugh. If you spent any time at all with him, you’d leave the encounter with a smile on your face. He knew the importance of community.
A professional civil engineer, Gid worked for years for the Maine Department of Transportation, where he served as director of the Office of Policy Analysis at the end of his career there. Later, in retirement, he formed his own company and worked for a time on a number of engineering projects for the federal government. That required Gid and his wife, Annette, to relocate to the suburbs of Washington, D.C., for many months.
Though he had traveled the world in work-related roles, he and Annette had spent most of their lives in Maine. Well-known in their community there, they were active in the local Catholic church and participated in numerous activities with neighbors and friends. No one stayed a stranger long with Gid around.
Their move to the D.C. area meant that Gid would ride the commuter rail back and forth to work every day. He came home from his first day on the job incredulous at the behavior of his fellow passengers aboard the train. “Nobody even made eye contact,” he said to Annette that evening. “They just looked down at their newspapers and never said a word. No smiles, no greetings, no nothing.” He ended with a promise: “That’s going to have to change.”
The next day and the next and the next, Gid worked his magic. By week’s end, he knew the names of most of the regular commuters. By month’s end, everyone said good morning to his cheery greeting. By the time his birthday rolled around several months later, a surprise awaited him.
Somehow, someone had learned the date of Gid’s birthday. When he stepped on the train that morning, everyone greeted him with a loud (and heartfelt) “Happy birthday.” Another commuter had even brought a cake. As they all sat there, joyfully eating together to celebrate this wonderful man’s birthday, no one would have guessed that this had been a carful of strangers just a few short months before. Thanks to Gid, they had become a community of friends.