36 of 100 – Decide to Be Extraordinary

I pray that in my limited lifetime, I can make a difference. My hope is that when my time is up, people will look back on what I did and agree that I made a worthwhile impact on the world.

This past week, my father, the "Larry" in my "Larry Jacob" business, had a tougher than usual week. For the past several years, he's been dealing with dementia. It was subtle at first. He was forgetting things. He would get disoriented under circumstances that he'd handled easily before. His condition as expected is progressing.

My point has less to do with what Dad is going through now and more to do with his impact. Dad ran a small business here in Miami all his life. He was and still is very involved in his church. Mom and him have been together for ages. They spend a lot of time active in our lives raising my five siblings and me.

When Dad's mom "Abuelita" was towards the end of life, she needed constant care. My dad and his five siblings would split up the weekends. Every weekend, one of them would stop their lives and stay with her. She was bedridden and not really there, but you could count on them being there when it was their turn.

I remember one visit in particular. I went to see Abuelita on a weekend when Dad was with her. I was there with one of my daughters and my dad was so cheerful. He was really happy to be there with her. Even though she wasn't pretty much checked out, he spoke to her as if she could hear him. She told him proudly about us and about my daughter in particular.

My dad was and continues to be ordinary, but he has managed to do so in an extraordinary way. He's had a huge impact on my life. He has made his mark and continues to do so. I can only pray I can be as extraordinary as he has been.