“You could always start your own business,” Cathy said. “You used to dream about doing that.”

Sure, I’d had my big plans, but that was years ago. The real world had dashed other dreams of mine in the past.

I glanced around the theater. There was an elderly man across the aisle listening intently to the student actors, a smile on his lips. He seemed to be enjoying every minute of the play. It focused on the experiences of college kids who had to do community service, such as visiting nursing homes or helping elderly neighbors with their chores. Wouldn’t it be great, I thought, if life could imitate art? I would love to go to a nursing home, wave a wand and put a smile on someone’s face. It would be like granting a wish. Humph, I thought. Too bad granting wishes isn’t a job in the real world.

The play ended and the actors left the stage, talking about how they were going to help others in their community. I realized then that I didn’t have to wait to do something significant for someone else. It could start right now in my community with me. I was still mulling over how nice it would be to grant wishes when I remembered reading about an organization called Make-A-Wish, which grants wishes to sick kids. All at once I had a brainstorm: Why couldn’t I do the same for the elderly? As soon as I got home I couldn’t wait to tell Cathy. “But it’s hardly a job,” I said, my mind filling with doubts. “In fact, it could end up being really expensive.”

“Maybe it could become your job,” Cathy said. “Pray about it.”

The next morning I got up early, made a pot of coffee and sat in the kitchen. I turned to the Bible and my eyes almost immediately fell on a verse from Proverbs: “Do not withhold good from those who deserve it when it is in your power to act.” Okay, Lord, I’ll give it a shot.

The first person I talked to was Jason Buck, the administrator at the retirement home where my mother-in-law had spent her last days. He was supportive about the whole project, but asked, “Where are you going to get the money?”

“I don’t know,” I told him. “I’m not sure how much I’ll actually need.”

“There might be someone here you can help….” He told me about June, a sweet woman confined to a wheelchair. “She doesn’t have much money and doesn’t get out very often. I’ll bet she has a wish that needs granting.”

June was wearing a well-worn dress when I explained my purpose. Her eyes lit up. “Any wish?” she asked incredulously.

I gulped. “Sure, any wish.”

She blushed for a moment and said, “It’s not going to sound like much, but what I really need are some new clothes. I like to go to church on Sunday and Bingo during the week, but I only have a few old dresses like this one. I’d love to go to a store and get something new.”

“That shouldn’t be too hard,” I said. I called my friend Sandi who I knew loved to help others in need. The next thing I knew Cathy, Sandi and I were taking June on the shopping spree of her life. I’d never seen anyone so happy. In the end we bought her five new outfits and a pair of shoes. “My friends won’t recognize me,” she said, admiring herself in the mirror.

I started a public charity and called it Never Too Late. But the requests only trickled in, leaving me without many wishes to grant. If things didn’t pick up, I knew that pretty soon I would have to get a job. I was about to polish up my résumé when I got another call from Jason at the retirement home.

“I’ve got an ex-farmer here who misses being out in the fields,” he said. Edwin had farmed in southeast Indiana for 60 years. He and his wife sold their place and moved to Indianapolis to be closer to their daughter. He didn’t miss being up before dawn every day and all the backbreaking responsibilities that came with farming, but he sure wished he could plow a field again.

“What I’d like,” Edwin told me in a tremulous voice, “is to drive a tractor one more time.”

On an early spring day under the bluest skies, I met Edwin and his daughter at the farm of a man who was glad to grant Edwin’s wish. As Edwin stepped out of the van, he closed his eyes and breathed in deeply the smell of the freshly tilled earth. When he opened them, the tractor appeared almost like magic before him. His face lit up. Edwin climbed up on that tractor, fired it up and drove out into the field. Lord, I thought, if that’s the last wish we grant, this whole thing has been worth it. What I’d had to do to make June and Edwin happy was so simple and yet so profound. And all it took was listening to their dreams.

As it turned out, the tractor ride was only the beginning for Never Too Late. Edwin’s story got into the local paper. And all at once we were inundated with calls from people who had wishes, and from those who wanted to make donations to our charity and volunteer.

In seven years the requests have never stopped. A 92-year-old woman had her high-speed wish come true when she got a ride around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway at more than 120 miles per hour! It was the ride of her life. Or take the octogenarian couple, Albert and Esther, who went skydiving for their sixtieth wedding anniversary. Then there was the opera lover who made a once-in-a-lifetime trip to New York City to hear her favorite tenor, Placido Domingo. She even got to meet him backstage after the performance.

What I do has become much more than a job. It’s my calling, that place where I feel I’m meant to serve God. I fulfill people’s dreams, with help from many others, but it all began when I allowed myself to dream again. It’s never too late to do that.

Know of a senior with a dream? Contact Bob Haverstick's charity.

Share your dream with Editor in Chief Edward Grinnan and other Guideposts readers.