An Angel in Disguise
For Ladies Home Journal
February 8, 2012
By Celeste Cummins
My marriage had ended. I needed to start life on my own and begin supporting myself. My part time job as a church secretary would begin the next week, but in the meantime, I decided to pick up some hours with a temporary Census job. That was the day I met Fred, the leader of the Census training. He was a gray haired, jolly, married man. I considered him to be kind of a fatherly figure to me, since my own parents lived out of state and I had no relatives living near me.
Fred and I became instant friends. He was able to talk to me, joke around with me, put me at ease, and make me relax. He would often look at me, as if seeing someone from his past and trying to recall where he’d seen me from. It was almost like we had known each other all of our lives because we got along so well. I’d even told my parents that he reminded me of a teacher I had while I was growing up because of their similar friendly personalities. They were glad I had found a friend.
Our Census training lasted one week. On Thursday afternoon, I got a terrible migraine and Fred sent me to a different room to lie down. He kept checking on me and asking me if there was anything on my mind that I wanted to talk about. I think he was referring to the divorce, but I wasn’t ready to talk about it yet. At the end of the week, Fred had to make the decision to put three of the class members on reserve status, meaning we would not be able to work immediately with the Census, but may be chosen later for an assignment. One of the people he put on reserve status was me. Later my seat mate, Pam, told me that she could “see the pain in Fred’s eyes as he struggled with that decision because he held you right here” and she pointed to her heart.
But, my story with Fred doesn’t end there. I thought it would. I thought he was just some government official that the Census Bureau had sent, but I was wrong. Remember, my church secretary job that I was about to begin? It turns out that Fred was a member of that congregation! Not only was he a member of that church, but he was also my boss!
Fred came in to my office every day to sit in the chair across from my desk and talk to me. How I began to enjoy those visits! If he wasn’t able to come in for his daily talk, I began to miss that time. Sometimes he would miss his daily visit and then he would come in the next day. But, Fred loved to talk and I enjoyed listening to him. I learned about how to stand up for yourself (his dad wanted him to be a Pastor, but Fred knew that was his dad’s dream; Fred’s dream was to be a teacher, so that’s what he became), never giving up (Fred had been burned very badly in a fire over 30 years earlier), love (through his stories about his wife, Diane), his goals for the future, caring about others (Fred faithfully visited the residents of the nursing homes), and many other things.
One Friday afternoon Fred came in and told me several stories from his past. He was so intent on telling me that I didn’t interrupt him with questions. I figured I could ask him those next week when I saw him. Right before he walked out the door, he tilted my chin up with his finger and said, “Keep smiling’”
