TUNICA COUNTY — Sometimes it’s the little things that show you care.
Last week, right around the lunch hour, a man stopped by the Tunica County Sheriff’s Office to take care of some business. By the time he walked back out to his vehicle, though, he found out he had a real headache on his hands. The battery was dead and the windows were rolled all the way down.
Then, predictably, the downpour started.
As thunder rolled across the Delta and the rain came down in sheets, the visitor’s efforts to get his vehicle cranked came up empty. That’s the moment Major Joseph Dawson stepped up.
With the rain pouring, Major Dawson went to work doing his best to shield the wide-open windows while he and the stranded driver tried to sort the situation out. Anybody who’s ever been caught flat-footed in a Mississippi downpour knows exactly what that looks like, and it’s a lot. Luckily, Dawson made sure that visitor didn’t have to do it alone
A helping hand with a dead battery in the rain seems like a small thing, on paper. And maybe it was.
But small things have a way of feeling big when you’re the one standing in the storm. As the Sheriff’s Office put it, a little compassion and a willingness to help can go a long way in a stressful moment.
“We’re proud to be your friends in law enforcement,” the Sheriff’s Office said on their Facebook, “and we’re always here when you need us, rain or shine.”
Here at Darkhorse Press, we spend a lot of our days in courtrooms and crime scenes, chasing down the hard stories. So when one of our Mississippi folks takes a beat to remind folks what service actually means, one wet uniform and one grateful driver at a time, we’re glad to tell that one too.
Well done, Major Dawson. And thank you to the men and women of the Tunica County Sheriff’s Office for stepping up to serve.
Know of a Mississippian going above and beyond? Darkhorse Press wants to hear about it for our “Stepping Up To Serve” series.
