Illness won’t halt service or smile

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By Tom Stafford, Staff Writer 7:41 PM Saturday, January 28, 2012

My friend is ill.

Ill in the way that most in my line of work, and probably yours, would call in sick.

But she can’t.

She’s older and needs the money.

And so she works.

In pain.

Pain is part of going through what she’s going through, she tells me across the counter.

It shows in her face. There is no grimace, more of an inability to relax her facial muscles, as though they connect directly to the pins and needles of her pain.

This hasn’t stopped her from smiling, but it has slowed the spread of her smile beneath paper-thin skin that has become a whiter shade of pale.

And because she no longer can honestly answer “fine,” when asked how she is, she nods without saying anything.

I met my friend because I don’t believe in drive-throughs.

I understand the convenience. And sometimes I take advantage of it. But rarely.

Even in steady rain, I’ll park my car and walk in, because I like the familiar faces.

And because the staff’s faces are more familiar to me than the customers’, I see the action inside differently.

I try to point out if someone’s been waiting for a coffee refill or standing at an untended register.

Although we’re often an impatient lot when on the way to work, most people really do remain civil if they’re not tended to right away, or maybe as soon as they should.

There are others who speak when they’ve waited too long. And that’s fine.

But others go too far.

It doesn’t bother me when businesses say “the customer is always right.”

It bothers me when customers do.

I’m a customer, and if I’m always right, that’s the only phase of life in which that’s so.

As a result, I don’t expect others across the counter from me to be always right — only that they make it right if there is a problem.

And I’ve found that being patient when that happens almost always means the person will stumble over herself to help you the next time.

But we don’t all see things that way.

And I’ve noticed that when money is exchanged, civil people sometimes berate and abuse others in ways they otherwise never would — at least not over a matter that might involve eight cents of change.

Don’t get me wrong.

There are some fast food workers who have yet to be introduced to common courtesy.

But most are not like that.

When my friend asks me how I am, I look at her and feel a tad guilty about any complaint.

“A little tired,” I tell her, “but not bad.”

“You woke up this morning, right?” she says.

“Yes,” I agree.

“That’s a good day. When you don’t, that’s a really bad day.”

And as I look at her, I wonder if her pain is trying to tell me something.

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0368.

Tom Stafford

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