Life's Healthy Lessons

What Hard Times Taught Arlene and Willis Hatch, and the Legacy They Left

Arlene and Willis Hatch (Courtesy Photo)

What moved farmer Willis Hatch and his schoolteacher wife, Arlene, to save over one and half million dollars to spread among friends of all ages after their deaths, instead of spending it on themselves?

Arlene’s words, quoted by one of the couple’s many friends, give at least part of the reason: “We’ve both been through the depression. We don’t see the need. We’re comfortable with what we have.”

Instead of spending time and money on extra things, they invested in friendship. Though they never had children, scores of local residents consider themselves Arlene and Willis’s “unofficial children and grandchildren.” Multiple generations of families sat on their back porch, talking about everything under the sun and just being friends.

I don’t mean to suggest that it was only their having lived through the depression that motivated their simplicity and generosity. I suspect their faith in God and the Bible’s teachings had a lot to do with it too. After all, hard times, it has been said, can either make us better or bitter. The Hatches chose to let their hardships make them better.

Happiness Is a Choice

This quote from James Buckham expresses it eloquently:

"Trials, temptations, disappointments—all these are helps instead of hindrances, if one uses them rightly. They not only test the fiber of a character, but strengthen it….Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before."

People like Arlene and Willis Hatch inspire me to choose to let the trials of life strengthen and, I hope, ennoble me. It’s not always easy to do; complaining and becoming resentful often seem easier.

But with hard times here and harder times coming, the realization that we can make a deliberate decision to not just make the best of them, but actually gain from them, empowers us to look at them in a positive light and face them bravely—and yes, even cheerfully.

It has been said that happiness is a choice.

What does all of this have to do with health?

Research has shown what people have seemed to know intuitively for centuries: happy people are generally healthier than those who allow pessimism, hostility, resentment, stress, or other negative emotions to take root in their personalities and mental habits.

You may not be able to leave money to those you love. But you can still leave an indelible imprint on the lives of those yours touched.

"The best portion of a good man's life is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love," Wordsworth wrote. Taking time to listen, being there in time of need, sharing a smile and an encouraging word with someone who is struggling—there are so many ways to put compassion into action! Thoughtful deeds, however small, may seem to be forgotten, but I believe they live on.

In the words of Dennis Waitley, "That which you create in beauty and goodness and truth lives on for all time to come. Don't spend your life accumulating material objects that will only turn to dust and ashes."