A Thank You 11 Years in the Making
Sometimes you stumble across something you weren’t looking for, and suddenly you’re transported back to a chapter of your life you haven’t thought about in a long time.
That happened to me recently.
I was searching for something online when I somehow came across an old GoFundMe page called Restore Doug Meadows.
I knew the page existed. I knew people had helped me. I knew my store manager at the time, Jen, had played a big role in putting everything together.
But I don’t think I ever really understood just how much was happening behind the scenes.
More than a decade later, sitting there reading those updates, I found myself overwhelmed with gratitude.
And it brought me back to a day that could have turned out very differently.
Getting Ready for a Wedding
My son Peter was getting married.
His fiancée, Kathleen, had grown up with a dream of someday getting married on her family's property. There was a large barn, a field and plenty of room for what could be a beautiful outdoor wedding and reception.
There was only one problem.
Nobody had really been taking care of the property for years.
The house had been vandalized. The grounds were overgrown. There was no running water where we needed it. There was plenty of work to do, and we didn't have much time to do it.
Sitting in the barn was an old John Deere tractor.
To our surprise, it started.
So we went to work.
We trimmed trees, cleared land, worked on getting water to the barn and tried to make the property ready for the wedding.
And then it started raining.
And raining.
And raining some more.
One part of the field was particularly low, and eventually the tractor became stuck in the mud.
The wedding was only about two weeks away.
Naturally, I did what any highly trained tractor recovery specialist would do.
I watched YouTube.
I became, as I like to joke, YouTube certified in getting a tractor unstuck.
That certification didn't work out particularly well.
The Tractor Came Over on Top of Me
We had chained logs to the tires with the idea that they would dig into the ground and help lift the tractor out of the mud.
What I didn't understand was what that could do to the tractor.
Instead of pulling itself forward, the rear end locked down and the front of the tractor began coming up.
And then it came over on top of me.
I remember being underneath it, hearing the engine still running and struggling to breathe.
My sons Joseph and Samuel were there.
Someone called 911.
Eventually the engine was shut off, and Joseph pulled me out from underneath the tractor.
I don't know if moving me was technically the right thing to do, but at that moment I was grateful. I could finally get into a position where I could breathe a little better.
Still, every breath hurt.
As I lay there hearing the emergency vehicles coming in the distance, I remember wondering:
Is this it?
Is this my time?
Thankfully, it wasn't.
Eight Broken Ribs—and a Wedding in Two Weeks
At the hospital, we learned that I had eight broken ribs, several broken in multiple places.
There isn't much they can do for broken ribs.
No cast.
Not much to fix.
You mostly have to endure it while your body heals.
And while I was lying there, my mind wasn't only on the pain.
I didn't have medical insurance at the time.
So I was wondering how I was going to pay the hospital bills.
I wondered what was going to happen to the business.
And then there was the wedding.
We still had a property that needed to be finished.
Water lines needed to be run. The muddy driveway needed work. There were all kinds of things left to do.
And the wedding was two weeks away.
I wondered if I was even going to be able to attend my own son's wedding.
But while I was lying in that hospital bed worrying about everything that still needed to happen, something else was happening that I didn't fully understand at the time.
People were stepping in.
While I Was Recovering, Others Were Carrying Me
My brother called me and asked,
“What do you need me to do?”
He came over and helped get the water line finished.
Other people stepped in and helped prepare the property.
Family and friends did what needed to be done.
And back at David Douglas Diamonds, Jen stepped up in ways I didn't fully realize.
Jen had been with me for years.
When I asked her to join David Douglas Diamonds, I knew I needed somebody who could help me grow the business. I didn't have the terminology for it then, but I do now.
I'm a visionary.
Jen was an implementer.
I could throw ideas around. Jen could help bring them into reality.
She could keep me in my lane, help organize things and turn ideas into action.
She became an important part of building David Douglas Diamonds into what it is today.
And when I had the accident, she did what she had always done.
She stepped in.
Restore Doug Meadows
The morning after my accident, Jen created the GoFundMe page.
She knew I didn't have medical insurance.
She knew there would be bills.
She also knew there was a business that needed to continue running while I recovered.
But what struck me all these years later wasn't simply that she created the fundraiser.
It was everything surrounding it.
She posted updates about my condition.
She thanked people for their prayers.
She thanked customers who stopped by the store.
She kept people informed about my recovery.
She helped hold things together while I was focused on something much simpler:
Breathing.
Healing.
Getting through another day.
At the time, I knew people were helping me.
But I couldn't really see the whole picture.
When you're in the middle of a crisis, you often don't know everything that's happening around you.
Sometimes you're simply trying to survive it.
Years later, reading those posts, I got to see the story from another perspective.
And it really got to me.
I Made It to the Wedding
Two weeks after the accident, I was there.
Probably pretty heavily medicated.
Definitely still hurting.
But I was there for Peter and Kathleen's wedding.
That morning, rain was in the forecast.
After all the rain we had already endured, that seemed fitting.
But we prayed.
And it turned into a beautiful day.
Yes, a few people still got stuck in the mud.
We got them out.
And the wedding happened.
It was beautiful.
For me, simply being there was a gift.
Not long before that, I had been underneath a tractor wondering whether I was going to live.
Now I was watching my son get married.
That puts things into perspective pretty quickly.
Sometimes Gratitude Takes Time
Over the years I've talked quite a bit about what we try to do at David Douglas Diamonds.
One phrase we use is:
Honor and Bless all whom God brings our way.
I love that idea.
It's something we want our business to demonstrate—to our customers, our team and the people who cross our path.
But looking back on this season of my life, I realized something.
This time, I was the one being Honored and Blessed.
My customers blessed me.
My friends blessed me.
My family blessed me.
My employees blessed me.
People prayed for me.
People donated money.
People stopped by the store.
People finished projects.
People carried responsibilities I couldn't carry.
And Jen did far more than I realized at the time.
That's what hit me when I found that old GoFundMe page.
I started wondering:
Did I ever really thank her?
I'm sure I said thank you.
But did I understand enough then to truly appreciate what she had done?
Probably not.
Sometimes gratitude takes a little time.
Sometimes it takes getting far enough away from an experience to see all the people who were standing around you while you were going through it.
Thank You, Jen
So I want to say it again.
Thank you, Jen.
Thank you for keeping the store together.
Thank you for keeping people informed.
Thank you for raising money that helped with my medical expenses.
Thank you for caring about me and my family.
And thank you for helping build David Douglas Diamonds through all those years.
Looking back now, I appreciate it more deeply than I probably could have appreciated it then.
And to everyone else who prayed, donated, called, visited, worked, encouraged us or simply showed up:
Thank you.
A Second Birthday
When I think about that accident now, I almost look at it as another birthday.
A second birthday.
Because that day could have ended very differently.
Instead, I'm still here.
I got to attend that wedding.
I got to return to the store.
I got to watch my children continue building their lives.
And now I get to sit here more than a decade later and tell the story.
I've talked before about resilience and the importance of getting back up when life knocks you down.
Certainly, there was some resilience involved in my recovery.
But this story reminded me that resilience isn't always something you accomplish by yourself.
Sometimes resilience looks like a brother asking, “What do you need me to do?”
Sometimes it looks like customers showing up.
Sometimes it looks like friends praying.
Sometimes it looks like employees taking care of things while you're gone.
And sometimes it looks like a woman named Jen quietly holding everything together while you're lying in a hospital bed wondering what happens next.
That's part of legacy too.
Not simply the business we've built over 100 years.
Not the jewelry.
Not the buildings.
Not even the milestones.
It's the people.
It's the relationships.
It's the people God brings into our lives who show up when we need them most.
And sometimes it takes eleven years to fully understand just how much they did.
For that, I am deeply grateful.
Doug Meadows
A Century of Luxury & Legacy
Sometimes you stumble across something you weren’t looking for, and suddenly you’re transported back to a chapter of your life you haven’t thought about in a long time.
That happened to me recently.
I was searching for something online when I somehow came across an old GoFundMe page called Restore Doug Meadows.
I knew the page existed. I knew people had helped me. I knew my store manager at the time, Jen, had played a big role in putting everything together.
But I don’t think I ever really understood just how much was happening behind the scenes.
More than a decade later, sitting there reading those updates, I found myself overwhelmed with gratitude.
And it brought me back to a day that could have turned out very differently.
Getting Ready for a Wedding
My son Peter was getting married.
His fiancée, Kathleen, had grown up with a dream of someday getting married on her family's property. There was a large barn, a field and plenty of room for what could be a beautiful outdoor wedding and reception.
There was only one problem.
Nobody had really been taking care of the property for years.
The house had been vandalized. The grounds were overgrown. There was no running water where we needed it. There was plenty of work to do, and we didn't have much time to do it.
Sitting in the barn was an old John Deere tractor.
To our surprise, it started.
So we went to work.
We trimmed trees, cleared land, worked on getting water to the barn and tried to make the property ready for the wedding.
And then it started raining.
And raining.
And raining some more.
One part of the field was particularly low, and eventually the tractor became stuck in the mud.
The wedding was only about two weeks away.
Naturally, I did what any highly trained tractor recovery specialist would do.
I watched YouTube.
I became, as I like to joke, YouTube certified in getting a tractor unstuck.
That certification didn't work out particularly well.
The Tractor Came Over on Top of Me
We had chained logs to the tires with the idea that they would dig into the ground and help lift the tractor out of the mud.
What I didn't understand was what that could do to the tractor.
Instead of pulling itself forward, the rear end locked down and the front of the tractor began coming up.
And then it came over on top of me.
I remember being underneath it, hearing the engine still running and struggling to breathe.
My sons Joseph and Samuel were there.
Someone called 911.
Eventually the engine was shut off, and Joseph pulled me out from underneath the tractor.
I don't know if moving me was technically the right thing to do, but at that moment I was grateful. I could finally get into a position where I could breathe a little better.
Still, every breath hurt.
As I lay there hearing the emergency vehicles coming in the distance, I remember wondering:
Is this it?
Is this my time?
Thankfully, it wasn't.
Eight Broken Ribs—and a Wedding in Two Weeks
At the hospital, we learned that I had eight broken ribs, several broken in multiple places.
There isn't much they can do for broken ribs.
No cast.
Not much to fix.
You mostly have to endure it while your body heals.
And while I was lying there, my mind wasn't only on the pain.
I didn't have medical insurance at the time.
So I was wondering how I was going to pay the hospital bills.
I wondered what was going to happen to the business.
And then there was the wedding.
We still had a property that needed to be finished.
Water lines needed to be run. The muddy driveway needed work. There were all kinds of things left to do.
And the wedding was two weeks away.
I wondered if I was even going to be able to attend my own son's wedding.
But while I was lying in that hospital bed worrying about everything that still needed to happen, something else was happening that I didn't fully understand at the time.
People were stepping in.
While I Was Recovering, Others Were Carrying Me
My brother called me and asked,
“What do you need me to do?”
He came over and helped get the water line finished.
Other people stepped in and helped prepare the property.
Family and friends did what needed to be done.
And back at David Douglas Diamonds, Jen stepped up in ways I didn't fully realize.
Jen had been with me for years.
When I asked her to join David Douglas Diamonds, I knew I needed somebody who could help me grow the business. I didn't have the terminology for it then, but I do now.
I'm a visionary.
Jen was an implementer.
I could throw ideas around. Jen could help bring them into reality.
She could keep me in my lane, help organize things and turn ideas into action.
She became an important part of building David Douglas Diamonds into what it is today.
And when I had the accident, she did what she had always done.
She stepped in.
Restore Doug Meadows
The morning after my accident, Jen created the GoFundMe page.
She knew I didn't have medical insurance.
She knew there would be bills.
She also knew there was a business that needed to continue running while I recovered.
But what struck me all these years later wasn't simply that she created the fundraiser.
It was everything surrounding it.
She posted updates about my condition.
She thanked people for their prayers.
She thanked customers who stopped by the store.
She kept people informed about my recovery.
She helped hold things together while I was focused on something much simpler:
Breathing.
Healing.
Getting through another day.
At the time, I knew people were helping me.
But I couldn't really see the whole picture.
When you're in the middle of a crisis, you often don't know everything that's happening around you.
Sometimes you're simply trying to survive it.
Years later, reading those posts, I got to see the story from another perspective.
And it really got to me.
I Made It to the Wedding
Two weeks after the accident, I was there.
Probably pretty heavily medicated.
Definitely still hurting.
But I was there for Peter and Kathleen's wedding.
That morning, rain was in the forecast.
After all the rain we had already endured, that seemed fitting.
But we prayed.
And it turned into a beautiful day.
Yes, a few people still got stuck in the mud.
We got them out.
And the wedding happened.
It was beautiful.
For me, simply being there was a gift.
Not long before that, I had been underneath a tractor wondering whether I was going to live.
Now I was watching my son get married.
That puts things into perspective pretty quickly.
Sometimes Gratitude Takes Time
Over the years I've talked quite a bit about what we try to do at David Douglas Diamonds.
One phrase we use is:
Honor and Bless all whom God brings our way.
I love that idea.
It's something we want our business to demonstrate—to our customers, our team and the people who cross our path.
But looking back on this season of my life, I realized something.
This time, I was the one being Honored and Blessed.
My customers blessed me.
My friends blessed me.
My family blessed me.
My employees blessed me.
People prayed for me.
People donated money.
People stopped by the store.
People finished projects.
People carried responsibilities I couldn't carry.
And Jen did far more than I realized at the time.
That's what hit me when I found that old GoFundMe page.
I started wondering:
Did I ever really thank her?
I'm sure I said thank you.
But did I understand enough then to truly appreciate what she had done?
Probably not.
Sometimes gratitude takes a little time.
Sometimes it takes getting far enough away from an experience to see all the people who were standing around you while you were going through it.
Thank You, Jen
So I want to say it again.
Thank you, Jen.
Thank you for keeping the store together.
Thank you for keeping people informed.
Thank you for raising money that helped with my medical expenses.
Thank you for caring about me and my family.
And thank you for helping build David Douglas Diamonds through all those years.
Looking back now, I appreciate it more deeply than I probably could have appreciated it then.
And to everyone else who prayed, donated, called, visited, worked, encouraged us or simply showed up:
Thank you.
A Second Birthday
When I think about that accident now, I almost look at it as another birthday.
A second birthday.
Because that day could have ended very differently.
Instead, I'm still here.
I got to attend that wedding.
I got to return to the store.
I got to watch my children continue building their lives.
And now I get to sit here more than a decade later and tell the story.
I've talked before about resilience and the importance of getting back up when life knocks you down.
Certainly, there was some resilience involved in my recovery.
But this story reminded me that resilience isn't always something you accomplish by yourself.
Sometimes resilience looks like a brother asking, “What do you need me to do?”
Sometimes it looks like customers showing up.
Sometimes it looks like friends praying.
Sometimes it looks like employees taking care of things while you're gone.
And sometimes it looks like a woman named Jen quietly holding everything together while you're lying in a hospital bed wondering what happens next.
That's part of legacy too.
Not simply the business we've built over 100 years.
Not the jewelry.
Not the buildings.
Not even the milestones.
It's the people.
It's the relationships.
It's the people God brings into our lives who show up when we need them most.
And sometimes it takes eleven years to fully understand just how much they did.
For that, I am deeply grateful.
Doug Meadows
A Century of Luxury & Legacy