My friend Curt

I had not planned to write about Curt today.

My friend Curt stopped by my house late yesterday afternoon. I was glad to see him. He had been in a horrific car accident back in October 2005. He was limping and rightly so, his left leg is still healing from the near compound fracture he suffered in the accident. His right hand was so badly broken that he can hardly use it. He's right handed. So he has to learn to use his left for a lot of tasks.

I've known Curt about 5 years. He was one of the first mechanics I ever hired. He was a great employee. He was always on time, did good work and gave 110%. All the customers liked him. He worked with me for about 3 years. Then he met "her", a girlfriend, wonderful…

Well she sure out maneuvered me I'll tell ya. She had a booth at Alii Market Place selling flowers. Curt started making bamboo candle holders and she started selling them for him. His sales started to climb and gradually provide a steady second income. Before you know it old Curt's working with "her" selling his wares and making more money than working on cars.

Wasn't too much longer after that Curt rents a space at the farmers market on the corner of Alii drive and Hulalalai Rd and starts expanding his inventory to carry other things. Like produce, wood carvings, jewelry, and ukuleles. In the mean time "her" business at the other place is slowing down. So she joins Curt and they work together. In the mean time she's handling all the money. Curts ok with that. Business is booming they're raking in the dough. This goes on for a couple of years.

Then one day back in October Curt's driving on saddle road minding his own business when boom some bone head coming the other way on the wrong side of the road hits him head on. He was taking his daughter home to Hilo after a visit. Thankfully she was ok, but he took the brunt of the impact on his side. Hence the badly broken leg and hand.

He is so badly injured that he's flown to Honolulu for treatment. Soon after getting out of the hospital and returning home he is told he's going to be single again and has to move out and "oh by the way here's 1500 bucks good bye, remember she's holding all the money.

I'm hearing this and I can't believe my ears! To say this is an injustice would be putting it mildly. After reading this you might be thinking he's not telling you the whole story, which may be true. But I know him and I know he's a good guy and he doesn't deserve to be kicked out on the street with hardly any money and all busted up physically.

Continued..