Grandma Henke

I carry a little notebook with me for jotting down “profound” things I come across. I don’t remember where I found this quote from Dee Hock, founder of VISA International:

“You learn nothing from your success except to think too much of yourself. It is from failure that all growth comes, provided you can recognize it, admit it, learn from it, rise above it, and then try again.”

I remember my first “hard-earned” lesson.

Dad raised mink for a few years back in the 1950′s and 60′s in a little farming community called, Draper,  Utah. It was a big investment of time, money, and energy to make it a profitable venture and it wasn’t his main source of income. His “real” job was that of a supervisor for the Utah State Road Dept … so the farming and raising the mink came after he got home from work. He depended on us kids to help out and counted on us being responsible.

I learned about dependability one hot summer day in July when I was about ten years old. It was my job to water the mink three times a day and it was a stinky job that I did not enjoy. I had to drag a hose on the outside of all of the coops and fill little cups with water one by one. The mink were in wire cages and their droppings would pile up underneath the pens and the smell was strong and the flies were thick. This particular day I went off to play with my friends and did not come home to water the mink. I thought I would hurry home and water them just before dad got home so he wouldn’t know I had shirked my responsibilities. When I got home I was dismayed to see Dad’s truck already parked in the driveway and he was walking back to the house from the mink sheds at the back of our property.

He came up to me, put his arm around my shoulder and we headed back out to the mink. He didn’t say anything more in the five few minutes it took us to go down the dirt driveway and with each step my heart got heavier and heavier. He picked up the hose as we went past and we started along the outside of the farthest shed filling the completely dry metal cups with water. The first few mink in the row were frantically running around their pens waiting for their drinks … but when we got farther along I saw one lying still … and then another … and another. My eyes welled with tears as I realized they were not going to get up, and that it was because of me they had died on a very hot summer day with no water. Dad squeezed my shoulder with his arm and said, “I was counting on you, Babe.” I am a tender hearted person and the thoughts of those mink suffering was more than I could take in. Tears streamed down my cheeks as I also thought of how I had let my father down … how hard he worked for our family and what the loss of approximately twelve of his best male mink would be to him financially.

He didn’t scold me. He didn’t need to. Together we watered the mink and I tearfully promised him I would never let him down again as long as I lived. He knelt down by me and looked me in the eye and said, “This is a very hard-earned lesson. You need to always remember that when you have a responsibility you must be dependable so people can always trust you. You are important to me and I love you very much. We don’t need to talk about this ever again, okay?”

I have never forgotten that hard-earned lesson on dependability and my dad’s expression of his love for me.

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