There was a funeral in Calhoun County last week. Jim Davidson had passed away. As you all recall, or perhaps you don't, Jim was the custodian at the Calhoun County Grade School. He had bee there for more years than most people could count and had served the clean up needs of several generations of young children. They had all looked up to him for some reason and had come to him with their scraped knees and hurt feelings as often as they had gone to the teachers or school nurse.

Not much was known about Jim. He lived in a little house on Pleasant Street by himself. No one can ever remember him having a girl friend or even looking at a woman. He had gone to the Baptist Church each Sunday and sang in the choir. Never missed a service or special occasion.

Jim had always remembered the dates of the teachers’ birthdays, and every birthday they would find a dozen red roses on their desks. If school was not in session, he would make sure that the teacher got their roses anyway. Jim was a friendly person and often had coffee at the bank or would spend hours whiling away the hours with Jim, down at the Handy Mart while Jim did his duties on the night shift.

Not much was known of Jim before he came to work in Calhoun County. He just showed up one day at the school office and asked if they needed a janitor and they had so he went to work. He had passed a police check so no one thought he had done anything bad in the past.

It was a surprise, then, when the sheriff went to check up on Jim. For the first time in 20 years he had not shown up for work and people were worried; after all, Jim wasn't that old.

The Sheriff didn't get an answer when he knocked on Jim's door and thought he had better look around a bit. When he looked through the living room window he saw Jim sitting in his easy chair and knew there was no good to be found when he managed to get the front door open. Yep, Jim was dead and had been since Friday afternoon.

That was not the biggest surprise to the sheriff; as he entered Jim's house, it occurred to him that he didn't know of anyone else that had even been in Jim's house.

On the wall was a discharge from the Army and several medals that Jim had won fighting in Vietnam. On his dresser was a flag that had belonged to a buddy of his that had died in Vietnam, and in his cupboard were more pills than they eye could count that seemed to have been there to help Jim make it through it all.

But the biggest surprise of all was the Medal of Honor that was in a chest on his counter.

There was a funeral in Calhoun County this week. They laid Jim Davidson to rest. There were no big bands, no dignitaries to speak greatly of him. Students he had cleaned up after carried his coffin to the grave, and right before the coffin was lowered, the VFW played Taps and rendered a 21 gun salute.

You see, Jim was a hero not because of the medals he had won but because of the person he had been and he will be missed by all.

There is an opening for a janitor at the Calhoun County Grade school. Heroes are welcome to apply.