You Sleep I Watch

When my father was dying of cancer, two different leaders stood watch over my family. 

Neither of them had to. 

Recently, I was watching the movie Project Hail Mary. There’s a moment when Rocky says four words to Grace that stopped me in my tracks. 

You sleep. I watch. 

And almost immediately, I thought about Bill Gordon, who was my boss for nearly thirty years. 

When my father was diagnosed with cancer three days before Christmas in 2003, Bill told me to take the time I needed. Family comes first. 

Then he quietly made sure he was available whenever I needed him. 

For five months, he gave me two full afternoons every week so I could sit with my dad while my mom got a break. One day every weekend, too, simply so I could be there while there was still time to be there. 

He never made a big deal out of it. He never asked for recognition. He simply stood watch while my family walked through one of the hardest seasons of our lives. 

I couldn’t repay him then. 

I still can’t. 

There was another leader who stood watch, too. 

My father had taken a job as the sales manager at a car dealership after being out of work for quite some time. Truthfully, he never enjoyed the work. It wasn’t how he imagined finishing his career.

Then the chemotherapy started. 

For the last four months of his life, he couldn’t work. 

The owner, Steve Oliver, told him to stay home and get better. 

Then, Steve continued paying his full salary until the day he died. 

My parents weren’t wealthy. After years without steady work, much of what they had saved was already gone. Those paychecks didn’t just cover bills. Steve removed a burden my father never had to carry during the final months of his life. 

I’ve never forgotten either of them. They remain two of the greatest gifts anyone has ever given my family.

For more than twenty years, I have deeply appreciated what they had done. It took an alien in a science fiction movie to finally give me the words for it. 

You sleep. I watch. 

Compass Reflection 

Courage doesn’t always look like charging into uncertainty. Sometimes it looks like quietly stepping into someone else’s burden. 

Empathy notices when another person is carrying more than they should have to carry alone. 

Trust is built when people discover that, in their moments of greatest vulnerability, someone chose to stand the watch. 

Somebody is sleeping right now, trusting you to watch. 

Make sure you do.