Merry Christmas to two sweet teachers who give me a smile nearly every afternoon when I walk through the gym doors to pick up my little guy from first grade….I’ve enjoyed your smiles very much the first half of this school year. So, I simply had to give the two of you a little simple happy.
About 18 years ago I was a waitress while I was pursuing my first degree. I had this customer I waited on every single afternoon after she picked her daughter up from the elementary school. This lady never smiled, more or less had this grimace, and hardly said a word to me as I waited on her each and every afternoon at nearly 3:00 P.M. on the dot. You could set your watch by her arrival. She always ordered a medium coke and a small coke. She never tipped, I don’t even recall a thank you really, just that grimace every afternoon that I still remember to this day. After I waited on this charmer for a year, she had already come through for her daily two sodas and left, she asked for me – I had no idea she knew my name. I couldn’t imagine how two cokes could be messed up. I went out to see what was the matter as I could only assume from her usual grimace that something must be the matter. I found out that day her name was Victoria. Victoria didn’t have a complaint. She had an envelope. She told me that she had been coming to the restaurant everyday for the last year because everyday I smiled at her and that smile was what got her through the day, because she knew when she left her house to go pick up her daughter, it meant she was getting her daily smile……from me. About a year before I began to wait on Victoria, she and her daughter and her son had been in a car crash. They had been hit by a drunk driver. Her son didn’t survive. Her grimace was all she could muster each day. I unknowingly gave this stranger a reason to get out of bed each day. What was in that envelope you ask? Well, Victoria proceeded to tell me that she knew I had been ill the last few weeks and that she hadn’t been seeing my smile, so to my great surprise, the lady who had never tipped me, gave me a $100. She said that I had given her so many smiles to make her smile that she wanted to do something for me to make me smile.
So, do keep smiling, you never know when you may come across another Victoria who may just need that smile of yours more than you may ever know.
Merry Christmas Ladies!
Wee One's Mom – Mignon
We truly never know what a smile may mean to a stranger. I had no idea that a smile - my smile - could mean so much to another person, but it did. The next time you come across someone with a grimace, instead of thinking that they must be miserable, give them a smile and plant a seed that may help them get through another day. You never know what your smile may mean and it's free to give them away.
M.
