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Doug Jones
I know this blog post is self-indulgent. I know! I know people don’t want to hear about a woman thinking her husband is a hero. I know!
Blah. Blah. Blah, you’re probably thinking.
I know! I know!
But mine really is.
When most people see Doug Jones, they see a guy in a suit. He’s an administrator. He has to wear a tie to work, dress socks.
He doesn’t like that. It makes his legs itch.
He still does it.
He deals with ridiculous amounts of stress. There are government regulations. There are massive amounts of money owed to his hospital from the state government.
He doesn’t like that either. It makes a line furrow between his eyebrows.
He still deals with it.
There is the massive pressure of knowing that if the procedures at his hospital don’t go absolutely the right way, people could die.
The thought of that horrifies him. The stress makes his heart pump harder. His head aches sometimes.
He still manages that stress.
Somehow, he manages it all.
And he’s a real hero, too. A few years ago while kayaking on the Union River early one morning he heard splashing, yelling. He paddled harder, rounded a corner and saw an overturned canoe, a boy struggling in the water. He got that boy to shore, called 9-1-1, looked for his friend. He never found him. The Coast Guard eventually did.
Doug doesn’t talk about that much. And sometimes when we round that curve on the Union River, his eyes go silent.
Somehow, he still keeps moving.
That’s not the only reason Doug is my hero. He’s my hero because he is kind. He’s my hero because he’s supportive; because he tries so very hard to not just be a guy in a suit, but tries to be someone who is human and listens to people’s stories, their concerns. Every decision he makes is a hard one, but he makes it.
And when he comes home he is still kind.
And when he comes home he still listens to me whine about the papers he refuses to let me recycle, the papers that stack up in piles on the stairs.
And when I said, “I’m thinking about running for the legislature” he didn’t shrivel up or roll his eyes. He said to go for it.
How many people would do that?
How many people are so willing to let their lives go crazy for a little while, just because it’s something their wife feels she has no choice but to do?
Not many.
Somehow, he still does it.
That’s one of the reasons why, one of the MANY reasons why, he’s my hero.