GMH

GMH stands for "Gives Me Hope" (http://www.givesmehope.com/). On this site, people post twitter-length stories that, well, give them hope. We all know I can't stay within a character limit, so here's our "GMH" from Wednesday during our trip to Shriner's Hospital this week:

Shriner's in Shreveport is only an hour from our house, and we learned very quickly that this is a hu-mongo blessing. Many families travel long distances (Oklahoma, Alabama, Arkansas) to get the very specialized pediatric orthopedic care Shriner's offers. We go to Shriner's for this very reason -- they host a monthly clinic just for kids with spina bifida. These folks have seen it all, and their experience is invaluable; nobody knows much about spina bifida, but they DO!

So, back to our GMH. Retirement is supposed to be a "withdrawal from an active working life," but this week at Shriner's, we met four gentlemen who are using their retirement to do a pretty amazing service. They accompany children with their parent to the Shriner's Hospital. They may drive them or take them on a flight. Apparently, each Shrine Temple has a team of people whose job it is to make sure kids from their area can get to the hospital they need, whether that's the burn center in Galveston or Cincinnati, or the orthopedic hospital here in Shreveport.

I don't know a THING about what Masons are or what the Shriners might do in their "secret" meetings, but I can tell you, we sat with a 60-something guy who told us that once he could spare the time during retirement, he just knew he wanted to become a driver: " . . . to get these kids to the hospital!" What will WE do with our retirement?

These guys GMH.