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Working in costumer services is funny. It has its ups and it has it downs. Everyday you get stupid people asking stupid questions. Customers who come do some shopping in fowl moods and then decide to take out there frustration on the associates of the establishment. It is at these jobs that you see the worst of humanity. People stealing, stupid parents, ticket switching, lying about items they try to return and my favorite from my days at the supermarket store, switching cheap meat with shrimp. But it is also these jobs when you get to meat strangers with life stores that you may have never hear had your job been to site behind a desk from 9-5pm.
A few years ago I worked a t a Hispanic super market here in my hometown of Fontana. For the most part it was lame and I got pretty tired of seeing dishonest people and stupid parents day in and day out. A typical customer is a house wife with two or three kids running up and down the stores ails. But it was at this store that I hear a very sweet story.
It was a very slow weekday and it was almost near closing time. I was the last bagger of the night and I was working that night with one of my favorite cashiers, a very funny older lady named Rosita. She was ringing up a fairly large order for a couple who also had their kids with them. It was a family of six, husband, wife, three teen boys and a pre-teen daughter. Now it is always odd to see a husband help with the shopping and it was even more odd to see teen kids grocery shopping with there parents. As I start to help with the bagging the cashier is making small talk with the adults and then the man started ranting about the kids. He told us that he had been a single father to his little girl and he got tricked in to marring this widow with 3 monster boys that are nothing but trouble (pointing to his wife). All the while those 3 “trouble makers” and the sister are sharing a bag of skittles. The cashier and I stood there in shock as the man continued to trash on his kids! Then the wife turns to us as and said, “his lying. Those boys are his.” Out of now where the man started laughing. They told us who after about there little family. She had been on her own for years after her first husband left her and her infant girl and he was the widow raising those boys. The wife told us that those boys are the most well behaved kids and that they had welcome her and her daughter in the family with out a second thought. They even call her mom. The husband said he never thought he would ever find love again after his wife died. To him it was a miracle the he found her at a time when they needed each other the most.
I really have no idea why that story stayed with me these 4 years since I worked at the market. I think it because I loved how up beat the whole experience was. The triumph when it could have easily gone bad.
But not everyone as an up beat story of love and hope. Almost 2 years ago I started working at Robinsons May which has now become Macys. Being in a job where you are forced to make small talk with people, you get a lot of funny, odd or sad stories. I have twice been brought to tears by customers. Yea over the past 2 year I have heard a lot of said stories that bring me down, but only twice have I cried.
About a year ago was the first time I cried because of a customer. This older lady asked me to help her find in out fit for her husband funereal who had lost his battle with cancer. I was a little taken aback but she looked very flustered so I decided to help her. Her one request was not black; her husband did not want her to wear black. I tried showing her gray suit separate and she just kept saying,” I don’t know, I don’t know...” and at that point she leaned on a fixture and started crying. I had no idea what to do but I didn’t want to leave her there or just stand there either. So I asked her what her husband’s favorite color was. Like magic she stopped crying, looked at me and said,” Purple, he said he loved me in purple.” After that it was easy to find her a blouse and pant. When she left I told the other associate that was there with me that I had to take a moment. I went in to the stock room sat on the ladder and cried. I was a little proud of my self for not losing my composer on the sales floor. I know the women for less then and hour but seeing her so week and helpless hurt so much.
The last time a customer got to me was about a month ago. I am almost sure it was my first day back with my manager since moving to the other store. I went to help an associate ring the next customer. The lady was standing at the wrap stand staring off at nothing and I asked if I could help her. The first think she said when she realized I was there was,” the last time I was here, my husband was still alive.” I really did not know what to do after that. For some reason I felt the best thing to do was to let her talk about it and encouraged her to. I asked her to tell me what happened and if he was sick. Her husband was not sick he when in for a check up and the doctor said he hear something odd in his lung. He was scheduled for an exam that called for a small puncture in the lung. Something in the exam went wrong and the doctor missed the lung and punctured a hole in his heart. With in seconds he was dead, all this while she was across the street shopping. Since the day she buried her husband 2 years ago she has been in a never ending malpractice lawsuit. She was shopping because she was going back to work after 2 years of not leaving her house except for the meeting with the lawyer and the court appearances. She even showed me his death certificate. When she stated crying I got her tissue, held her hand and I cried a little with her. We just stood there for a few minutes as she told me she just wanted it to end. After I rang her up I went around the register and hugged her. I don’t really hug strangers but I felt like she needed it. She thanked me for my help, my patients and for letting her talk and hearing her story.
Somehow I feel thankful that I have met these people because their stories touched me. I feel like letting them talk about how they feel helps them move on. I remember these people and think about their loss, wishing them the peace. I also think about the hard times I experienced. What happened with my house and my brother was the scariest think to happen to my family. Your world can change in a matter of minutes and I want to thank god everyday for what I have. The family I still have close and the 3 greatest friends I have ever had. I am thankful.
 PansyDiscordia · Mon Apr 14, 2008 @ 06:19am · 0 Comments |
