The good guys always wear the white hats

About a week ago I ran to McDonalds for a quick lunch. As I was hurrying to eat I spotted a good friend of mine that’s in his seventies. That family ropes really, really good. He was helping his wife get to the car. She could barely walk.

He’s from a family that is famous for team roping, several of them have made the National Finals Rodeo. I don’t want to name names, but they know roping, horses and how to win.

I offered assistance, but he eased her into the passenger side of their pickup. He had to practically lift her into the seat. I him asked what was wrong with her leg. He gave me an exasperated look and said she’s got a really bad knee and she’s got Alzheimer’s disease.

He said she has her good days and bad days, but he has to take care of her and make sure she doesn’t wonder off, even with a bad knee she can still travel a ways. He told me of how he helps her eat and get dressed each day.

Then he told me he had recently sold his farm and bought a trailer house so they could live on his grandson’s place. He did that so if anything should happen to him his wife would be close by the grandson and they could care for her. When he told me that I was kind of speechless, it really kind of took my breath away.

Here’s a guy that has owned some of the best horses and won several of the biggest ropings in the country, now he’s sold it all so he can care for his wife.

We shook hands and as I drove off I thought about the sacrifices he was making for his wife. These last few days I’ve had time to reflect on it even more.

All of the great cowboys I’ve met in my life have had one thing in common. They kept their word when the chips were down. Maybe it’s years and years of caring for horses and cows and knowing the job has to be done or maybe it’s an age old code of the west to keep your word and finish what you started.

One things for sure though, he’s keeping his word to his wife, “till death do we part.” He didn’t have on his cowboy hat the other day, but I’ll always picture him in my mind wearing a white one, because good guys wear the white hats.