GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — The most important delivery Tim Westfall makes along his UPS route every day doesn’t come from a box in the back of his truck. It’s not on his official schedule.
It starts with a text message that reads something like “Homeboy, a cup of coffee with cream, please. be over in a couple of minutes.”
Westfall takes his lunch break to visit his dad, whom he sometimes refers to as ‘homeboy’. The men share more than blood; they also share a name.
“Who do you want? Big Tim or Little Tim? So, he’s Little Tim, and I’m Big Tim,” the older Westfall said.
The visit is a welcome reprieve from days that can get lonely.
“You ain’t got nobody to talk to, so that’s the hard part. When my son comes over, I get to see him and I get to ask him about the kids,” the older Westfall said.
His son enjoys the visits too and listening to his dad’s stories.
“Now that he’s getting older, I hear the same stories over and over,” he said.
His dad is a Vietnam War veteran who served in the U.S. Air Force. ‘Big Tim’ said his own father served in the Navy and wanted him to do the same, but “I said no, I can’t go to the Navy because I get seasick, and I wasn’t going to wear that little round hat.”
Westfall hasn’t always lived alone. He lost his wife, Donna, six years ago to cancer.
“She worked for the bank for 40-some years and then retired. She got to retire for two years before she died, and that’s the hard part. It still hurts, not as bad, but it still hurts,” he said.
The fact that the younger Westfall’s route takes him near his childhood home is no coincidence. After his mom died in 2017, the route became available.
“I took it, just knowing I can come here because otherwise. I don’t get to see him, other than maybe every other weekend,” he explained.
He added that his managers have no problem with him using that time on his break to sit with his dad.
In warmer months, the men sit in the driveway about six feet apart, a leftover from the pandemic.
“I don’t know why we do it, we just never stopped,” Little Tim said.
Charles Kettering wrote, “Every father should remember that one day his son will follow his example, not his advice.” If that’s true, Little Tim says he’s in good hands.
“(My dad) does everything for us. if I say, ‘Hey Dad, bring me a pair of gloves,’ or if I need a hot cup of coffee, or if I’m starving and say, ‘Hey Dad, have some dinner ready when I come over for lunch?’ He has it.”
Once those thirty minutes are up, the younger Westfall gets back to his busy route, but he proves every day that one thing more important than an on-time delivery is the delivery of time.
