Sunday, December 19, 2010

My Hero, Paul Niswander

This is Paul Niswander.
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He is a good looking guy, right ladies.? And single. Holler at me if you want his number :)

Paul was my hero on Dec 2. When I told Paul I needed him to "come now", he ran, in a full suit no less, from the cafeteria to our apartment. He drove like a pro from Wilmore to the hospital, arriving just after the ambulance did. Honestly, he was beating the ambulance at one point. Paul is the man who let me cry on him when I thought Abby was dying, theman who at one point had 4 cell phones in his hands as he called mine and Abby's family to let them know what was going on. He answered our phones and updated people he didn't even know. His service of updating people was a huge blessing. I couldn't do it. It was too hard to talk about it. I know it wasn't easy for Paul to talk about it either. Abby and Paul are good friends. I am sure it was incredibly hard for him to continually describe to friends and family the dire situation his friend was in. But he did it, knowing that knowledge helped people to pray and calmed the fear that inevitably arises due to the unknown.

Paul stayed with me until family arrived. He stayed until the situation was under control. I can never thank him enough for what he did for us and due to our intense experience together Paul will be one of the few people to receive Uncle status with Eli. Thank you Paul.

An interesting note: When Paul and I were alone while Abby was being prepped for the c-section, he said to me, “We have come a long way from you not liking me, huh?” My reply, “Yes we have. From me not liking you to you being the first person I thought to call."

The story behind this is that when Abby and I were dating Paul stopped by Abby's apartment to visit her. At some point he says, "So I hear your dating a new guy. Well, lets go. I want to meet him." Abby said sure, put on some shoes and got in the car to come see me. Paul told me later that what impressed him most at that moment was that Abby made no attempt to put on nice clothes or pretty herself up in any way. She just got in the car in her sweats and drove over. This apparently proved to Paul that Abby felt completely comfortable being herself with me. So, Paul and Abby arrived at my house and we start talking. Paul has an interesting story and I was enjoying listening to it. Then as our visit starts to wrap up, he tells me, "I want to let you know, Abby is special and if you hurt her, I am going to have to hurt you." WOA! Red flags! Warning signs! Who the crap does this guy think he is, saying this to me. He is not her brother, he is not family, and he is threatening me (or so I felt)! Oh heck no dude, you and me are officially not friends. Or at least that is how I felt at the time. Over the course of the next two years I came to learn that Paul just comes on strong some times, that he really is a caring and kind guy, and that all he was trying to do was jokingly tell me how much he cared about Abby. So, that was my bad initial impression of Paul. And, hopefully through my last two posts, you see the shining impression I have of him now.

Eli, meet your Uncle Paul (sorry man, I just had to use this picture):photo.php.jpg

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