“Don’t ever underestimate the impact that you may have on someone else’s life.”
Anonymous
I believe that you never know how your actions or what you say will affect someone. I found out how true this is over 50 years after the fact and I cherish the moment.
It was my first year in the Van Rensselear Garden Club. We were getting ready for the Green’s Show at the Rensselaer County Historical Society. It is a big project every year and we start working on it the summer before. I signed up to work with my membership sponsor, Mary Ellen. Another woman, Linda, also joined her committee. Mary Ellen invited us to her house one August day to discuss what we should do to decorate the upstairs kitchen. We met in her back sunroom, but there was no sun as it was raining that day. I was the first to arrive.
When Linda came in, Mary Ellen said. “This is June Kosier. She used to be June Hannay and she lived on the corner where the bank is now.
Linda said. “You are June Hannay? You are one of the reasons I became a nurse.”
That surprised me. I didn’t remember Linda at first.
She told me her maiden name and mentioned her brother who I did remember. She lived on the street next to mine.
“I used to see you in your uniform coming home from the hospital when you were going to college and you looked so professional. You also took me on a tour of Sage when I applied there.”
I had forgotten that I was a tour guide at the college and didn’t remember taking her on the tour.
I was so happy to hear what she was telling me and my eyes flooded with tears to think I had inspired someone to become a nurse, a profession very dear to my heart.