The route, and what it taught me

I grew up in Fredericksburg, Iowa, raised mostly by my mother Joan. That matters to how I see all of this, because I watched one person carry a load meant for two and never once make it anyone else's problem.

Now I work for UnityPoint at Home out of Urbandale as a medical equipment hazmat tech. Three years on the same route. Nursing homes, care facilities, private homes. I bring in the equipment, I service it, I take it back out.

What that job really gives me is access. I am in rooms most people never see. I meet the families on the worst week of their year. I meet the aides who know every resident by name and are three hours into a double shift. I see which places treat people like people and which ones do not.

You cannot see that every day for three years and go home unchanged. At some point you either look away or you start building something.

I started building. Aging With Honor came first because the need was loudest. Kerr Systems came because the building had to pay for itself. The rest followed.

Faith runs under it. I am not interested in preaching at anybody, and you will not find much of that here. But I do believe the way we treat people at their weakest is the truest thing about us, and that belief is why I keep going back out on the route and then coming home to write.

Kerr Life Vision began with the loss of my nephew Dawson, at 21.