Practicing Patience: Associate bonds with customer battling ALS

Max Henson Updated
Max Henson

Staff Writer

Feb 04, 2021

If not for a break from their routine, April Salinas still wouldn’t know about a special Lowe’s associate and the connection he’s formed with her 63-year-old husband Kelly, who has ALS and can no longer walk or speak.

April typically drops Kelly off at their local Lowe’s in Idaho Falls, Idaho and helps him into a motorized shopping cart so the former contractor can spend time doing what he loves – perusing the aisles at Lowe’s.

But this time in late January, she wheeled her husband around the store, and that’s when they ran into Roger Wood.

To April, Roger was a stranger. Not to Kelly.

Kelly and Roger greeted each other with big smiles like old pals, leaving April surprised and confused.

“How do you know my husband?” she asked.

Roger started working at Lowe’s in October in 2019, and over the course of Kelly’s many store visits, they have gotten to know one another.

Kelly, who uses text on his phone to communicate, told April that Roger assists him whenever he’s at the store. She learned that Roger makes it his personal mission to ensure Kelly finds everything on his shopping list.

 

“I figure this is what I’m there for,” Roger said. “This person needs help, and I can help.

“When Kelly comes in, I automatically tell myself, ‘Slow down. Just slow down.’ Whatever he needs, that’s what’s going to happen. He’ll get his cell phone out, punch in some words, and then we’re off to get him taken care of.”

The way Roger described his interactions with Kelly, it’s clear he doesn’t think he’s done anything special or out of the ordinary.

But April’s emotional reaction reveals just how unique Roger is.

Despite battling this terminal illness, Kelly continues to work on home projects. What used to take him hours now takes him weeks, but as his wife proudly says, he’s a fighter.

Lowe’s gives him access to the tools and materials he needs to get those jobs done with the precious time he has left.

And his friend Roger is there with a smile on his face, ready and waiting to help.

“Each time I go, as soon as Roger sees me, he comes right over to help me,” Kelly typed in a message passed along by his wife. “I can no longer speak, and he patiently waits for me to communicate by texting on my phone; always treating me like a friend and most importantly NOT treating me like I am disabled. I always enjoy going to Lowe’s, even now with my physical limitations.

“The patience and kindness shown to me by Roger has served to magnify my enjoyment and to minimize my limitations.”