Contributed by:
Anita Oberwortmann
I was attending a conference and expo in Chicago. As my friend and I were walking to McCormick Place I would greet everyone I came to. My friendliness could be obnoxious to a bystander, but I felt I was talking in special tongues as I walked through this wonderful, diverse group of citizens and visitors.
I said struck up a conversation with Lacy the paper guy who had the same stand next to the coffee shop for more than a decade, thanked the police who were everywhere keeping some order to the madness of the crowds on Michigan Avenue. I met a spry 85 year old man, conversed with our doormen, spoke to the taxi drivers and the list goes on and on. At one point I said greeted a doorman and asked him how his day was. He spun around and said “Thank you, I needed that.”
I was walking near Lake Michigan and a man in a wheelchair appeared. As I was walking past him I looked down, smiled and said to him”How are you?” He said that he was fine. In a sneer my friend said, “How the hell do you think he is, he is probably homeless and in a wheelchair!”
My friend was attending another conference in Orlando so he had to leave and as he walked past the man in the wheel chair the man said, “Who was that woman? You know, no one ever talks to me and she made my day!”
I did not hear about this for a week, when it was announced at a company meeting and it made me feel warm inside. What a great gift to all.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Loved your stories Anita! I was in Chicago once and had leftovers from a restaurant I was carrying back to the hotel. I handed it to a homeless person sitting along the street bundled up in the cold. He looked at me, fearful I think, for what was inside. I told him he may as well have part of a delicious meal and as I walked away he dove inside the bag. I wish now that I had more left over.
Lodge a Compliment! If you drive through a fast food restaurant and your order is correct, your food is hot and your service was great, call the manager and tell him or her!
Managers are used to getting complaint calls but too often we forget to call in our compliments.