My name is Ralph and I am 42 years old. I work in a factory that I enjoy
very much.
On May 27, 1999, I was working on an automatic shrink wrap machine.
While guiding the shrink wrap my hand was pulled into the machine and my
middle finger on my right hand was ripped off. I had surgery to replace
what
was left of the finger and now I have a finger that is almost as long as my
index finger.
Over the years I have been very blessed for a full and
healthily life and most of all for my greatest gift of all my wife. We
have
grown together and grown in our faith. Life was going to go on with or
without my finger and I was strong and grateful for where I am in life so
far. I am not going to let this take over my life and will make the best
of
what God gives me. I pushed to go back to work and got light duty.
This was where my lesson began.
When I returned back to work I started getting
comments and some teasing from people asking me if it was worth losing my
finger over a pack of cigarettes. Someone started a rumor that I had
dropped
a pack of cigarettes and reached down to pick them up and that is how I
lost
my finger. This is not true. This rumor hurt more that losing my finger
in
that machine. Everyone was called in a meeting to resolve this matter and
get the true story straight and I had to share my lesson (for isn't there
always a lesson in life?).
If I haven't got a nice thing to say about someone
I will not say a word. And I have also learned to not judge anyone for I
now
know how it feels to be judged. We can ruin a persons life by just a few
wrong words. I am sorry to all that I have ever hurt by my words and will
work in my life to never do it again. There is an old saying that I will
never forget: "Words and water are easily poured, but impossible to
recover."
So please remember to watch what you say.
