WHATEVER YOU NEED

 I was working as a consultant in a beer company, helping the president and senior vice-presidents formulate and implement their new strategic vision. It was an enormous challenge.

At the same time, my mother was in the final stages of cancer.

I worked during the day and drove 40 miles home to be with her every night. It was tiring and stressful, but it was what I wanted to do. My commitment was to continue to do excellent consulting during the day, even though my evenings were very hard. I didn=t want to bother the president with my situation, yet I felt someone at the company needed to know what was going on. So I told the vice-president of Human Resources, asking him not to share the information with anyone.

A few days later, the president called me into his office.

I figured he wanted to talk to me about one of the many issues we were working on. When I entered, he asked me to sit down. He faced me from across his large desk, looked me in the eye and said, AI hear your mother is very ill.@

I was totally caught by surprise and burst into tears. He just looked at me, let my crying subside, and then gently said a sentence I will never forget: AWhatever you need.@

That was it. His understanding and his willingness to both let me be in my pain and to offer me everything were qualities of compassion that I carry with me to this day.

       Martin Rutte.

 

QUESTIONS

 

1. Vocabulary. Find in the text words or expressions that mean the same.

Began to cry:

Got in:

Disturb:

Completely:

 

2. Answer the following questions according to the text.

a. What kind of job did the writer have?

b. Who in the company knew about the writer=s mother=s illness?