Senior Narrative: Claude Anderson - Paper Example

Claude Anderson an 86-year-old man whose ambition to life has never been deterred by age or societal expectations of a man of his age. It would surprise you that Claude has been working until he was 82 when he saw it wise to retire from his Lawn Service and Cleaning business. Being self-employed Claude was in charge of his life for the bigger part of it, the perks of his returns from the business saw him employing other four individuals. In many cases in his life, he has had to make tough decisions and even employ skillful managerial tactics to get him through the management of his business and his life. For Claude, the Lawn and Cleaning service business were his brainchildren, and it had to be given razor sharp focus. Claude Anderson never married or had any children of his, despite this, he is a happy godfather and grandfather to many of his nephews and nieces.

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In his life, he has had to hustle through high school living on the outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia. Heralding from a city that back in his years was famous for gang life and drug abuse, Claude never got much of a background that encourage the uptake of education. Claude Anderson managed to go through high school successfully and was selected to enter Brad Stone community college. College life was tough for Claude as he had to work three jobs in order to raise the college fees and even support his four siblings. He hustled through working as a waiter in a nearby cafe, worked night duty in a home of the old, as a delivery guy for the Times Newspaper in his neighborhood. All these commitments made life in college unbearable, and his performance in college dropped.

College life can be said to be the most difficult moment in Claudes life, the returns he was getting from the three jobs were never enough to supplement to his needs and that of the family at home. Considering that he grew up from a single parent family with a semi-skilled mother who worked as a kindergarten teacher within the neighborhood, life wasnt a smooth sail. The bills at home were rising as his other siblings were young and could not contribute to increasing the family income, all the burden was laid on Claude and his mom. Claude could not manage working part-time and college, he had to make a decision to drop either one of them in order to succeed with one. At this moment Claude consulted with his mother, and they both saw it wise that he drops out of college. This means that Claudes dream of becoming a Quantity Surveyor for an architectural firm was going down the drains. Personally, he had envisioned himself working on a white collar job with a five digit salary. All his dreams of a better life than he lived with his mom and siblings were shattered. The inability to continue with his studies was a major setback in his life. Despite all this Claude pulled himself together and decided to face life by the horns, he went ahead to take a full-time job at the diner as a waiter, a cleaner at the local home of the old and maintained his schedule of delivering newspapers.

In regards to the problems that came in his way, Claude always responded with a hopeful smile. He worked hard in all his jobs and was able to create enough income to sustain the family needs and even saved up some cash. The savings from all the jobs were put together, and he started a lawn services and cleaning company. In his life, he started out to apply for lawn service and cleaning contract in buildings. As a service package, Claude bought a lawn machine that was used in cutting hedges and grass around office parks. As the business grew over time, Claude hired his first two employees, they both worked with him in the lawn services. The three of them worked in so many offices in Atlanta city; their lawn servicing was always top notch, and this eventually got them a high number of referrals. In a simple case scenario, Claude and his two employees got very busy and the point of seeking assistance from temporary employees.

After three years in the lawn service, Claude realized that he could offer cleaning services for buildings around Atlanta City. In many cases, the buildings he was contracted to offer lawn services also needed cleaners. He decided to take up two more employees to take up cleaning services to the office blocks around the city. The business started booming since the reputation of the five men preceded them. With the rise in the amount of income generated he was able to support his mother and siblings and most of them went to college without many challenges. It is important that they managed to have a better life than Claude, this can be attributed to his hardworking spirit.

In the midst of business, Claude found a woman whom he truly loved, Hellen was a young educated nurse who worked in the McCartney Community Hospital. In their relationship, Claude was a very happy man, and he always had the feeling of belonging whenever he was around Hellen, he felt complete when he was with her. Their love lasted over a period of three years when Claude was ready to propose to her is when the most terrible thing happened. One evening Claude was given a call and informed that Hellen was shot during an attempted robbery by gangsters on her way from work. To Claude this was the worst message on the planet, he went a sad period of his life. His work dropped as he did not have the incentive to work, he had never married Hellen or had any kids with her. On this occasion, Claude swore an oath never to love another woman as he had loved Hellen with all his heart.

After the loss of the woman of his life, Claude has always been focused on his work all the way to his 82 years old birthday. His philosophy in life is Face All that Come your way like a Man. Despite the ups and downs in Claudes life, he has always managed to take good care of his parent, the siblings and even his friends. His love for other people surpasses the love he has for himself; he says that he learned this from Hellen. In a greater sense, it can be acknowledged that Hellen was the candle in Claudes life, she lit the way and gave Claude a sense of focus. In so many aspects one would say that Claude was lost without Hellen.

Claude says that for any young man entering into adulthood, he should be prepared to love and provide for his woman come rain come shine. In this he implies that in romantic relationships, life throws a lot of blows on you, what it requires of you is to take the punches like a man and face facts. He complains about the marriages of this century; he says that many young men and women enter into marriage with one foot out; this implies that people are always anticipating a divorce. He looks back into their days when people would get into marriage knowing it is a lifelong commitment, the marriages of these days do not last due to the fact that many people are not ready to commit. Claude says that many women whenever they see something wrong it is always an alert signaling them to leave their spouse. Honesty and trust are the best virtues that spouses need to instill in their daily doings. He advises young men to be true to their women and always be faithful to their partners for them to leave a happy relationship life. It is critically important to note that a successful union between a man and a woman should be bonded by love that surpasses doubt. Claude further, advises that young men and women should maintain a high level of respect for individuals in society as you might never know whom your next investor maybe. Hence it is paramount to learn to respect your fellow neighbor and always pay your rent on time.