Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

The VIPs

Add ‘most’ to that

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“I’m his pawpaw, but I’m also legally his father. I want him to know the difference. But it doesn’t change the love factor.”

—A VIP of the top order

THERE are important people, very important people, all around, every day. And not just those who make the news on frequent occasion, as if getting elected to a political office or being the loudest protester on the corner makes one important. Maybe self-important, sure, but there are more pressing matters than even our supposed betters can imagine.

Of course there are the very important people who get the (well-deserved) accolades when the time comes. Teachers, military types, firefighte­rs, the clergy. Who can celebrate Veterans Day without a few well-aimed words, or write a Thanksgivi­ng editorial without remember a favorite teacher, eh?

Funny thing, but these people are all around. Who can swing a bag of groceries in a Wal-Mart without hitting two of them? Look around at all the hospitals, funeral homes, hospice centers, synagogues, elementary schools, insurance offices and even the DMV. Many more of us are dedicated to helping each other rather than finding ways to harm. The do-gooders might not make the news as much, because of the nature of news, but imagine this society without them. On second thought, don’t.

A touching front-page article in your statewide newspaper Sunday told the story of a couple of these VIPs, or maybe MVIPs (as in Most Very Important Person), for who could be more so? No need for a spoiler alert since the story was printed days ago: The young lady central to the story is clean and has finished up her first year of college! She hopes to become a drug and alcohol counselor, and who would be better? A word, though: She should know she doesn’t have to necessaril­y get a job at the local drug treatment center or sheriff’s office to be a paid, upper-case Drug Counselor. She could just be a lower-case drug counselor, and show the world how it’s done through her works every day. Christians call it a Witness. And it can be more powerful than any title.

But the story also told of the young lady’s parents, Carl and Cheryle Cornelius, who didn’t ask to be mentioned in these columns. When their daughter gave birth behind bars, the grandparen­ts did what grandparen­ts do: Every. Thing. Possible.

“I am his pawpaw, but I’m also legally his father, ” Mr. Carl told our reporter. “I want him to know the difference, but it doesn’t change the love factor.”

Adds Miss Cheryle: “You know, he was so beautiful to me, and I felt like he was mine because I had so much love in my heart for him.”

This was the story of just one family. But there are so many more. So many more Arkansans—old, young, wealthy, not-so, prepared and utterly not—who step up every day to care for members of their family, because they can’t not. Grandparen­ts, aunts, cousins, daughters-in-law. They can’t not.

May their tribe increase. Heaven knows they are doing the most good. Nobody wants to imagine this world without them. All of them.

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