No applause sign

We get these e-mails at work announcing when a current or retired employee dies.  I got one today. It was for woman who retired this past June.  I was the M.C. at her retirement dinner.  I didn't know her, not many people did. Before I was asked to MC the dinner, I had never even heard her name before.  I never heard it even though she worked at the same place as me for 15 years.  She was a TA in a special ed class out in a district.  Someone told me that she was a recent grandmother to a pair of twins.  Other than that, I had nothing.   My grand idea was to change the lyrics to songs I knew for each of the people who were retiring.  I had everybody done except for her so, I spent some time reading through her personnel file. I still couldn't come up with anything except that her husband's name was Stan.  I was hopeless so, I used a song I wrote without changing the words.  I read a little from "Stan the Hot Dog Man and we (I was with the band) performed song for her and her husband.

There are people like me who call a lot of attention to themselves, who say something and immediately look to see if people react.  People who pretend to "not want to be noticed" but constantly look around to see if they are being noticed.

 Then, there are people who just quietly go through life, going about their business without ever calling much attention to themselves.  They don't win awards or have article written about them on the company website.  They do things thoughtfully, never complain and always work hard.  I learned that she was this person and I wish I could be more like her.

Some folks think that those who keep a low profile are afraid of being noticed.  I think they are brave for not having to rely on others for validation.