the editor talks with you

She was groggy from the anesthesia she had been given to let her sleep through heart bypass surgery. When Hilda Crain woke, she saw a familiar face beside her bed. “Mr. Bill,” she said. “Why are you here?” “I came to see how they were treating you here and make sure you’re going to be all right,” Mr. Bill said. When Hilda’s children came to see her in the Intensive Care Unit later that day, she told them Mr. Bill had come to see her. They thought she was hallucinating. No one but family was admitted. She wasn’t hallucinating. Her visitor was Bill West.

She and Bill had worked together for many years at the Lexington County Chronicle. They were like family to each other. What Hilda’s family did not know was that Bill had worn a dark suit and carried a Bible. Hospital nurses and technicians thought he was a chaplain. Bill didn’t disabuse them of that notion. That was just one of many stories about her that Hilda’s family shared at her memorial service at Southland Memorial Gardens on Old Dunbar Road last week. Many of her Chronicle colleagues showed up. Amid a few tears, there was a lot of laughter and gratitude for having known her, loved her, worked with her.

Hilda was what I think of as a successful woman. The dictionary makers who define words would probably disagree. They define success as a prosperous person who gained fame or attained wealth. I think Hilda satisfied those requirements. She may not have been wealthy in dollars and cents but she was wealthy in a way that really counts – in family and friends. She may not have been famous like, say, Donald Trump, Oprah Winfrey, Clint Eastwood or Elizabeth Taylor. But a lot of people in Lexington County knew her. Hers was the voice on the phone and the face they saw when they called or walked into the Chronicle office.

Hilda joined us in the late 1980s when we published The Dispatch-News on Main Street. She became our first employees when we were planning the Chronicle. As she had no car, we would drive to West Columbia to pick her up each morning and drive her home in the afternoon. And she was loyal through good times and bad. She joined us in learning to do almost every job at the newspaper. If anyone was sick, on vacation or unavailable, she could step in and do their work.

We could count on her to show up for work no matter how bad the weather became or how she might be feeling. Her wants and needs were simple. She loved fried balogna sandwiches, NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt and her family. We feel blessed to have worked with her for more than a quarter century. We will treasure those memories of her. She was a success in every way that counts.

Special Chritmas gifts

Looking for something unique for someone who has everything? How about a personally autographed book from our Authors for Literacy? 20 authors will sign their books for you at the Lexington library 11 am to 2 pm Saturday, Dec. 1.