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| Affiliation | Democratic |
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2018-01-01 |
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| Name | Talley Sergent |
| Address |
Charleston, West Virginia , United States |
| Email | None |
| Website | [Link] |
 Facebook | TalleySergent |
| Born |
Unknown
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| Contributor | RP |
| Last Modifed | RBH
May 12, 2018 11:22pm |
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| Info | It was January, 1996.
The historic blizzard that swept across the eastern United States had just dumped several feet of snow across West Virginia, leaving many stranded, without power and in freezing temperatures.
It was still the days of landline telephones and my grandfather called and said, “Talley, do you know how to drive in the snow?”
I didn’t.
In fact, I was just learning to drive with a learner’s permit and I surely didn’t know how to drive in two or three feet of snow.
He let out his big laugh and said, “Great – I’m on my way to pick you up. Even though my patients can’t come see me, I need to make house calls and go see them.”
It was a routine that we started that day, that continued nearly every Sunday in high school and that sticks with me still to this day, many years since his death in 2001.
My grandfather, Dr. Homer Cummings, exemplified the Greatest Generation of Americans. While he grew up during the Great Depression, like so many other West Virginians, he was called to service during World War II and helped make the United States the global superpower it is today. And just like so many of our parents and grandparents, he also taught me life lessons on that snowy day in January that guide me today.
Put simply: for me, life is about making house calls, going the extra mile and looking out for each other.
During house calls, I would often not even see the patient we went to call on. My grandfather, Papa as we called him, would always be greeted by a loved one who would welcome him and whisk him into their home. And that is the way he wanted it – he was there to serve, not to show and tell.
For me, though, I could tell. I’d wait in the car and listen to our favorite band, The Glenn Miller Band, and he would come back with either a look of worry or a sigh of relief. He’d share the stories of their families, their old, worn-down homes, and their faith. His patients would share their thanks in so many different ways – some would come mow his lawn, others would bake a fruitcake at Christmas, and my favorite was listening to one of his patients singing old hymns that she had recorded for us to listen to on a cassette tape. Even today, I meet his former patients who share how much they appreciated his service – both medicine and ministry.
For me and for you, house calls are part of who we are as West Virginians.
It’s about going the extra mile – even if it is a country mile in the snow. It’s about serving others, not self. It’s about taking an obstacle and turning it into opportunity.
It is not just the house calls we’ve made throughout our shared past that define us, it is also the ones that we will make together that shape our shared future.
That’s why I’m running for Congress.
It’s about going the extra mile to grow a new economy that works for us in West Virginia – one that is built on hard work, earning our fair share and creating more job opportunities right here at home.
It’s about going the extra mile to improve healthcare, not take it away, so that every West Virginian has the care they need to live their best life.
It’s about going the extra mile to make sure we stop the opioid epidemic dead in its tracks – the pharmaceutical companies that dump pills in our towns and the criminals who operate in an underworld in our backyards. We must go the extra mile to ensure another generation of West Virginians do not suffer from the disease of drug addiction. For me personally, this means protecting all of our children, including my own niece and nephew, from the hopeless cycle that drug addiction brings.
It’s about going the extra mile to create opportunity right here in West Virginia – to get a good education and start in life, to start a small business or even a startup, and to raise a family — a new generation of West Virginians — who truly believe that Mountaineers are, as our state motto says, always free.
Public service is about making house calls.
Service above self.
Obstacles into opportunities.
I’m Talley Sergent and I’m running for Congress to serve the people of West Virginia’s Second District.
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