What “Take the Message to Garcia” means to eAssist’s culture

By Jaycee Brown, Director of Communications

“A Message to Garcia” is a widely distributed essay written by Elbert Hubbard in 1899. Hubbard was inspired by a daring escapade performed by an American soldier, 1st Lt. Andrew S. Rowan, just prior to the Spanish-American War. According to Hubbard, Rowan carried a message from President William McKinley to “Gen. Calixto García, a leader of the Cuban insurgents somewhere in the mountain fastness of Cuba—no one knew where.” Rowan found him. Hubbard compared Rowan’s heroic effort to “the imbecility of the average man—the inability or unwillingness to concentrate on a thing and do it.” The essay, now out of copyright, is still in print.

When we say “take the message to Garcia” what we are saying is just do it and do it right and don’t wait for someone to tell you when or how.

Recently there was a chain of events that led to a rescue because one of our own, Angel S., took the initiative to follow up on an incident that could have easily been dismissed as “not her concern”  The following is based on her story:

Regina B. (Relationship Manager), reached out to me wanting to express her incredible amount of gratitude towards Angel S.; she is the reason her mother is still alive right now. A little background information to begin. Regina’s mother has dementia and lives in a special retirement home that can help cater to her physical needs. Regina being the incredible daughter she is placed several technology monitoring tools such as Alexa and cameras to constantly check in on her mother.

One morning, Regina received a call from Angel that still to this day she has a hard time believing. Angel proceeded to inform Regina that she had spoken to her mother the night before and that morning and that she was in trouble. Regina’s mom had fallen and was unable to help herself. Regina proceeded to tell Angel that she must be crazy or sleep calling because there was no way that Regina’s own mother called Angel- seeing as she didn’t know who she was or had her number. Angel being the persistent person she is insisted that Regina go and check on her mother immediately. She would not hang up until Regina promised to go and check on her mother.

After hanging up the phone, Regina pulled up the camera’s on her phone and noticed something very off. The bed her mother sleeps in had not changed since the night before, the covers were still perfectly placed. Regina and her husband got out the door as quickly as they could to go check on her mother all while thinking that Angel must have had a premonition because there was no way Angel had in fact spoken to her mother on the phone.

Upon entering the house, they found Regina’s mother on the floor and unable to get up. They rushed her to the hospital where she was diagnosed with a broken finger, an infection, and was in kidney failure (this was causing her pain). After her mother was stable, she went back to the house to clean up- it was then she realized what might have happened. Alexa (the Amazon tool) has calling abilities.

It seems that in trying to get ahold of her daughter to inform her that she had fallen, Alexa had called Angel S. instead for an unknown reason. Regina’s mother does not speak English very well, so it was a miracle that she was able to communicate with Angel as much as she did. Angel eventually made the connection of who this lady was and reached out to Regina immediately. Without Angel taking the initiative to contact Regina, her mother could have very possibly died.

Our culture is driven on the idea that we always get the Message to Garcia. Angel went out of her way, with no reason other than to help, and saved a life. These are the kind of individuals that eAssist brings on, knowing very well what they are capable of. It may not always be a miracle such as this situation, but living our lives with the goal of getting the Message to Garcia, we can all achieve incredible things.

eAssist Helpful News and Billing Tips; Edition #122