Gerald was from a small town and didn’t have many luxuries in life growing up. He came from a family where no one owned a home, graduated college, or beat poverty levels. Gerald didn’t miss what he had never had. Gerald knew he wanted to break his family chain of oppression.

Gerald decided that he would work hard and do not only the things that he wanted to do but also the things that others didn’t want to do. This meant that he worked hard at home, school, and at the tasks that anyone seemed to neglect.

Once Gerald became an adult, he knew that his hard work had to transfer into employment. He wanted to strive for more. He took employment as a Janitor. Gerald’s family lost hope in Gerald’s dreams of betterment because they could not understand. Gerald’s family didn’t understand how his drive to work hard would not venture him into new heights…like college and a high-paying job.

Gerald worked hard at his janitorial position. He did not care about his family’s opinions and he did not care if he was the first to arrive and the last one to leave the building he worked in. Gerald loved being a janitor and did it well.

There was no duty that was too mundane for Gerald. He cleaned toilets, wiped walls, and kept the floor shiny with pride and a smile on his face.

It was until Gerald got sick that his family had luck in hopes that he would make them proud and finally get a job he deserved. Unfortunately, Gerald was still determined to clean that building and it led to his demise.

Gerald was so focused on not allowing the janitorial duties suffer that he picked work over his health. Gerald became terminally ill. His family had finally won their wishes of him getting out of the janitorial business.

Gerald was unhappy and suffering while he laid on his dying bed. He called a family meeting and made sure he included every family member that opposed his choices. He begin to speak his dying wishes but was finished before he begun. The two words that his is family made out was “my building”.

After arrangements were made and they laid Gerald to rest. The family congregated for the reading of Gerald’s will. The same family members were there. His family only expected to hear how much debt Gerald was in and to see if they could make sense of his last two words.

To the family’s surprise, they discovered why Gerald was the best janitor that the building had ever seen.

Gerald owned it.

Gerald was the first in his family to own something and not only that…Gerald left his family with the building, the building’s revenue, and a massive insurance payout. In the will it was quoted that Gerald said, “This is why I did it. Hard work pays off”. Gerald reached new heights. Gerald made his family proud and they felt bad that never supported him. So, they paid homage to Gerald by owning the building and completing the janitorial duties themselves.

Long live Gerald.