Just before lunchtime, Lou got a couple of visitors: Steve and Hans.
Lou and I were watching some awful daytime TV talk show when they arrived. As soon as they entered Lou’s tiny room, it was suddenly filled up with two new larger-than-life personalities. But I was honestly so grateful to both of these men for making sure Lou got to the hospital.
This was also my first real chance to meet Steve, and to thank him for loaning us the car, and giving me a place to sleep. Steve was so kind to me — and he retold me the story of his own health scare. He made me feel so much better about everything, and I remember really liking Steve.
Even though I had given up on the idea that Lou was going to get the job with this company, I thought it was incredibly kind of these two men to stop by to check on Lou. The first 20 minutes of their visit was a play-by-play recap of what happened to Lou the day before, and how freaked out Steve and Hans were once they realized that Lou was bleeding. The whole incident was terrible and cringe-worthy, and I think the guys were still trying to imagine how all of this happened to Lou.
But like Lou almost always does, he handled himself beautifully. He wasn’t pathetic, or weak — instead, he was bright, kind, and humble. He didn’t make light of what happened, but he also didn’t let the conversation go to such a heavy place that everyone was even more uncomfortable than they already were.
Lou gave Steve and Hans a short explanation that he had benign tissue that was bleeding around his prostate, and that the doctors had finally gotten things under control. I remember sitting in the ugly vinyl bed-chair in the corner of the room, watching the exchange between Lou and these two important men. I felt like Lou showed as much poise and dignity that day as I’d ever seen.
Steve eventually asked Lou if he was feeling up to completing their chat from the day before. So I excused myself, and Lou and the guys picked up where they had (dramatically) left off the day before.
About an hour later, Lou called me and said it was clear for me to come back to the room. When I did, Lou had a funny smile on his face. He said that Steve had offered him a job. He wanted Lou to come on board as sort of a Chief Marketing Officer. As soon as Lou was released from the hospital, Steve and Hans would set up a proper meeting to discuss Lou’s compensation package, but the rough details had been sketched out that day.
Lou would get a nice salary, a moving package to help us get a place in Miami, and, Steve was going to sign over the red Mercedes as a company car for us to use.
I remember being almost numb with shock that Lou landed a job in his condition. It was stunning news — and, it was pretty much the only thing that resembled good news for us in a very long time. Lou seemed happy, and I remember thinking I was happy, too.
