You're so right, sir.
After all the crazy customer stories, there's this one that just broke my heart. Maybe it was a week for that, 'cause there's another I want to post when I have more free time.
As I rang up a customer's order, I chatted with him about the items he was buying, which included several very good children's books. He was tall, about 60ish, very dignified. When I asked him about the books, he said, "They're for my granddaughter." "Oh," I said, perkily, "Does she like to read?" "Yeah, she does. She learned to really love books while she was in treatment." He paused, and I tried to figure out what to say next. Then he said, "Y'know, cancer's something that's supposed to happen to people my age. It isn't supposed to happen to four-year-olds. She just had some tests run; they told us a few months ago she had a 98% chance of beating this thing, and now it's down to 37%."
What could I say? I couldn't. All I could do was reach over and pat his hand, tell him to take care, hand him the receipt and then turn to the next customer and say, "Next."
You're so right, sir. Cancer isn't supposed to happen to four-year-olds.
Comments
Oh, awful. You must have made him feel very comfortable to tell you this.
Next time....Tell him about www.chemoangels.com A lovely volunteer organization. I used to volunteer with them for several years. He's definitely right. Kids, shouldnt get cancer.
that's one of the things i adored about working in the restaurant business (not the same as retail, but the same in terms of the VOLUME of public that you deal with), was that every once in a while something would touch your soul, and you're like 'wow...i'm at work right now.'