IT'S A SIGN

I used to own a restaurant. For about seven years our very best customers were an older, blind man, and his son. They would come in for lunch every day of the week and then sometimes come back for dinner, too. The father was a widower who had not always been blind. He was retired from working in the prisons, and his wife had died, and then he had lost the use of his eyes, too. I think he had diabetes. His son, who had also worked in the prisons, had taken an early retirement, just to look after his Dad. Both men were funny and kind and extremely generous, and we (the owners of the restaurant) and the staff grew to know them, and to love them, a great deal. It got so that we would phone their house if they were just ten minutes late coming in because we would get worried about them. And it got so that they would warn us ahead of time if they were not coming, so that we would not be anxious. They were like a favourite uncle and a beloved grandfather for all of us. And then the inevitable happened--- and the father passed away.
My restaurant sat on a very busy road in the west end of town and had a large sign out front where messages could be posted. I wanted to post an appropriate farewell for our dear friend. The words we chose were: BILL CLARKE...  WE MISS YOU ALREADY. I assured the staff that one of the benefits of dieing was  that he would have gotten his sight back, because they were afraid that he would not be able to read it. Besides that, his son could certainly do so. We agreed that it was a fitting tribute.

Entirely by co-incidence the pastor of a local church was also named "Bill Clarke." In fact, we discovered by putting up the sign that there were at least three Bill Clarkes in town. We had a man rush into the restaurant to say that he'd been driving by and had not known that his acquaintance had passed away. "Such a young guy!" he told us. "Still working on the road crew for the city just yesterday! And now..." I assured him that his friend was a different Bill Clarke and therefore probably not dead, yet.
Also by co-incidence the pastor of the local church whose name was Bill Clarke had as one of his parishioners my ex-brother-in-law... my ex-wife's twin brother, Jack. He was, of course, the uncle of my son. And by co-incidence, as he was leaving church one Sunday morning, his pastor asked him about his plans for the day. My ex-wife's brother told him that, since that day was his anniversary, he was taking his wife out for dinner.
"Just hope you are not going to--- (and he named my restaurant)."
Jack smiled a little and asked: "Why do you say that?"
"Because I ate lunch there the other day and it was terrible! I'm never going back!"

Jack worked in town and lived in the west end so he had to drive by my old restaurant at least twice a day. He called his sister--- my ex-wife--- my son's mother--- and asked: "Did your son tell his father what Rev. Clarke said to me yesterday?" "I don't think so. Why?"
"Because", said Jack, "They have a big sign up in front of the restaurant, begging him to come back in and try lunch again!"

Since their names were the same, the elderly Bill Clarke used to get the occasional call in the middle of the night from parishioners seeking some counselling from their pastor. He usually corrected the error and gave them the right phone number. Once or twice, though (he confided), he let them talk a little before doing that, and he said he even tried his hand at giving advice when the situations were not too complicated, or too serious. He thought that he had been quite good at that. The two Bills actually ended up meeting each other, before old Bill died, and they discovered that they liked each other. Well, everyone liked old Bill Clarke. The son ended up asking Bill Clarke (the minister) to officiate at his father's funeral.  The lunch after the service was at my restaurant. The Rev. Bill Clarke had to tell people about the lunch plans and invite them all to be there. So he did, in fact, end up recommending that the gathered should try my place... and he came, too. And he liked it.

We were glad to have him back.