'No Need to Look for Love'
Once upon a time, an Irish man from Portlaw, County Waterford, of exceedingly good looks and appealing personality decided to settle down with the woman of his dreams, but first, he had to find her. His name was Tim O'Leary and he had been brought up from infancy believing in the inevitability of fate. For many years he looked throughout the four corners of Ireland, but without success. Then he advertised in the 'Lonely Hearts' section of the county newspaper, 'The Munster Express'; again without success. He did get numerous offers of marriage as a result of his advertisement, but none came from any colleen he felt he might love.
So, like many an Irish man before him he emigrated to America in search of a bride. It was 1962 and work in Washington DC was plentiful. He set up home there and secured work in a huge office building, thirteen floors high. For a number of years he searched for this lady, but never found her. He couldn’t understand how they kept on missing each other, especially as he strongly believed that they were fated to meet. As his search went on day after day, his sense of destiny grew ever stronger and kept him going. Somehow, he could sense that they were close to meeting each other for the very first time. His feeling of destiny told him that 'this was the year'.
Tim O'Leary speculated that she worked in the same high office building he attended every day, along with 8,887 other employees. He began to imagine that they kept missing each other by mere seconds or millimetres. He began imagining himself going in one door of the staff restaurant while she was leaving at the other door exit or taking their meal breaks one hour apart. “Perhaps, each time I enter an elevator to go up, she is coming down in the adjacent one?” he thought. “Or each time I press the elevator to take me up or down, perhaps she misses catching it by mere seconds?” he began to wonder.
He strongly believed that he and his future love brushed past each other daily without looking into each other’s eyes, yet was convinced that once they set eyes upon each other, both would instantly know that they were looking into the eyes of their soul mate. The thought of this drove him on in his quest. However, it did have a dramatic effect upon his mind as he became slowly driven into the despair of distraction. His behaviour became stranger with the passing of every single day and all manner of neurotic patterns developed to satisfy his tortured mind.
The demented man found himself virtually immobilised by the ‘uncertainty’, which now seemed to characterise every action he took or should have taken, but did not take. It was like being lost in a forest where he didn't know which way to turn. He imagined talking to the woman of his desire in all manner of places and at all times of day, without knowing it was her to whom he had spoken. When he went through a door, not only did he hold it open for the person coming through it immediately after him (in the event that it just happened to be the woman of his quest), but he held the door open until everyone behind him had also entered.
His lateness for work was remarked upon by his boss, but to offset that, others came to regard him as such a polite gentleman; the type that was very rarely found these days beyond the boundary of Portlaw.
His lateness for work was remarked upon by his boss, but to offset that, others came to regard him as such a polite gentleman; the type that was very rarely found these days beyond the boundary of Portlaw.
Tim began to envisage the woman of his quest like an elusive butterfly who fluttered past him daily without him spotting her. After Tim O'Leary had thought about the elevator situation, he initially tried to change his work breaks, but couldn't. So he decided upon another course of action to follow. Having been reared on the stories from 'Arabian Nights' as a child, his plan involved giving his boss something for nothing in exchange for a slight alteration in his daily working pattern; not too unlike Ali Baba who offered 'new lamps for old'.
He arranged with his boss to start one hour earlier than everyone else each morning and to forgo his lunch hour every day in order 'that he could man the elevator when all the other employees started work for the day, went to lunch at noon and left for home at the end of the working day'. He said that he was content to do this extra work manning the elevators for no extra wage, besides putting a full day's work in behind his desk. Being too good a deal to miss out on, his boss naturally agreed.
He arranged with his boss to start one hour earlier than everyone else each morning and to forgo his lunch hour every day in order 'that he could man the elevator when all the other employees started work for the day, went to lunch at noon and left for home at the end of the working day'. He said that he was content to do this extra work manning the elevators for no extra wage, besides putting a full day's work in behind his desk. Being too good a deal to miss out on, his boss naturally agreed.
From the following week, Tim operated the elevators every morning, lunch hour and evening, providing a personalised service for every employee in the building. Before many weeks had passed, everyone in the building who used the elevator came to know him and respect the fact that he was providing his services free and without any increase in his wages. He became the most talked about and highly regarded employee in the building of 8,888 people. News of Tim even hit the national television networks and one day shortly after, even the President of the USA, John F. Kennedy popped in to see this public-spirited employee from Portlaw for himself.
One month after he had changed his routine, Tim O'Leary had grown so popular that if he'd put up for Office of the City Mayor, he'd probably have been elected by a landslide. However, it wasn't political power he craved for, nor the money and prestige that went with such a position. What Tim wanted today was the very same thing he'd wanted before he came to America. He wanted to meet the woman of his dreams, to marry her, settle down, have a large Catholic family and to grow old together.
He still hadn’t managed to come across the mysterious woman and for the very first time since setting foot on American soil, Tim began to harbour doubts of ever coming across her. Then, in a bid to mentally justify all of his efforts over the past six months, he stopped doubting her existence, but did start to question if she actually worked in this building and not the one next door. Occasionally he would stand between the two buildings for fifteen minutes a day, just on the off chance that she might pass him. “Should I change jobs?” he began to ask himself.
However, after reassessing his situation, he quickly realised that he didn’t want to leave his present job and the many close friendships he’d formed over the previous six months. He had never been as happy in his life or had felt so respected. He knew that he belonged there. He could feel it within his very being and he resolved to stay on the same track in the time ahead, wherever the future might lead him. “I am staying,” he resolved, "even if I never find her! In fact, not only am I staying operating the elevators for free every day as I have done for six months now, but I’m going to do it now because 'I like doing it'. I'm staying on the same tracks and going to the end of the line, wherever the future takes me!”
Tim O'Leary carried on as intended and was exceedingly happy with the numerous friendships he continued to make. He even stopped looking for the lady of his dreams. Then something very strange happened. When Tim stopped looking for the woman of his dreams, she found him. It was as though the tide of love had magically washed her in to his piece of private beach. She had heard about this kind man from Portlaw who gave his time daily for nothing less than the improvement of the lives of others. Something inside her told her to seek him out and so she did.
As soon as he saw her for the very first time she approached him, Tim knew that she was ‘the one’ and so did she when her eyes met his. Very few people will ever twice brush the intensity of love they share the first moment their eyes meet, let alone taste it. Their office colleagues were delighted for the happy couple and gave them a super pre-wedding office party. They realised that now that because Tim had found his soul mate, the happy couple would be spending all future lunch breaks together and that the services of their unpaid elevator operator would be gone for ever.
Tim and Molly fell in love instantly. They were married the following spring and lived happily ever after. As the happy couple walked down the aisle, the Portlaw man looked at his loving bride and said sweetly, "Rejoice in our good fortune, my love, for lasting love did not pass us by!"
The reason they had never met at the elevator sooner was simply due to the fact that Molly was ‘a keep fit fanatic’ who preferred to walk up and down the thirteen flights of steps three times daily for exercise. Consequently, she never used the elevator.
The reason they had never met at the elevator sooner was simply due to the fact that Molly was ‘a keep fit fanatic’ who preferred to walk up and down the thirteen flights of steps three times daily for exercise. Consequently, she never used the elevator.
Tim O'Leary remained working at the office complex and eventually left to return to live back in Portlaw after his seventh child had been born. While operating the elevators during his earlier time with the firm, Tim had coined a new morning greeting to welcome his colleagues into work. He started greeting them with the words, "Good morning..... Have a nice day." This manner of greeting took hold like wildfire and today, all Americans use the terminology as a matter of course without realising that it was originally coined by a Portlaw man from County Waterford, Ireland.
The moral of this story is “Don’t bother looking for love. There is no need, as it will more readily find you when you have stopped seeking it out!”
Copyright William Forde March, 2012.
The moral of this story is “Don’t bother looking for love. There is no need, as it will more readily find you when you have stopped seeking it out!”
Copyright William Forde March, 2012.
