Today was a sad day. Today I was glad that I had two little distractions-- Mason and Emma-- who didn't allow me to be sad all day. But before life goes back to normal and we get lost in the day-to-day messiness that is life I need to take a moment to tell the story of a living legend that I have had the privilege of knowing for so many years.
There are truly no accidents in life. God's hand is in everything including my small bladder which is where this story begins. I was 7 months pregnant with Emma and we were on our way home when I couldn't hold it any longer. All the ladies who have been pregnant before can sympathize with that! I asked Duane to pull over somewhere so I could use the bathroom before traveling the last few miles to our apartment in Beaumont. He stopped at a Market Basket, a small, local east Texas grocery store chain. I frantically searched for a bathroom sign with no luck! I came across a nice old lady who was sampling in the cold section of the store. I politely denied the sample because I need to pee, but quickly came back and asked if she knew where the bathroom was. She told me where it was and I practically ran. Fast forward through the bathroom scene... "something" kept telling me to go back and talk to the old lady. Thoughts were flying in my mind because we were in the market for a sampler and were having NO luck finding someone to pass out nugget samples at our mall store. I nervously approached the lady and introduced myself, gave her my business card, and told her if she was ever interested in working some place else as a sampler to give me a call. Duane was very proud of my assertiveness- and so was I! She called me soon after our first encounter. I interviewed her, she accepted the position, and Ms. Mary has been with us for 7 years! Now this part will give you chill bumps--- I found out years later while in conversation with Ms. Mary that the day we met she had accidentally shown up at the wrong Market Basket that day. The company she worked for had placed her at a different Market Basket, she had the addresses confused, and ended up there--- only to have me stop there due to my small bladder, ask for bathroom directions, and have "something" tell me that I needed to talk with her about sampling at Chick-fil-A. I know now that God's hand was at work the entire time. It was his small voice that keep nudging me to be courageous and speak with her about working for us. And as she tearfully reminded me today... she has loved every minute of working with Duane, me, and our team at Chick-fil-A.
The official good-bye today was not easy. How do you say good-bye or even "see you later" to someone who has had such a profound impact on your business and your life. She has been with us through both pregnancies, watched me raise both kids, and watch Duane and I grow into more mature business people. She has watched us struggle and excel. Many of you know the story about us moving from a Chick-fil-A in Beaumont to own our store in Fall Creek/Humble. Ms. Mary did not come with us at first. She gave the new owner at our former store a chance because packing up your life in your seventies is not fun and she thought that everything would stay the same. I had hoped for her sake it would to. Unfortunately, she quickly became unhappy and with the help of our GM we brought Ms. Mary back to us and she has been with us for 3 years almost to the day at our Fall Creek store.
I have so many classic Ms. Mary moments in my mind. There is not possibly a long enough blog post to capture her incredible years of service and many of your stories are just as great as mine! Here are some great Ms. Mary facts that you may not know about our living legend:
- She had quite the sweet tooth and incredible genes! She ate cheesecake with strawberries or a milkshake with a small "potato" as she called it for her break food quite often. How she kept that fantastic figure I will never know!
- We had to make her take a break most of the time. She is quite a worker bee!
- She would always come running in right at 10:58 am to be "on the clock" by 11 am.
- She discovered she loved our hand-rolled biscuits so our team would always save a biscuit for Ms. Mary since she missed the breakfast hours by the time she arrived at work. She would eat the biscuit feverishly with a bottled water before starting her work day.
- She always wanted to look her best so it was quite a task picking out uniform shirts for her. I finally gave up and she went shopping for her own :)
Of course, the most notable trait about Ms. Mary was her servant's heart. She received such joy from passing out samples at our first store and later helping our guests as a hostess here in Humble. We would get the question so many times about why we were making such a sweet OLD woman work so hard. Such a loaded question but the simple answer was that she was doing what she loved doing... and she was getting paid for it! We never made her work, we never forced her to do anything! She was doing what came naturally to her-- serving her community, helping how she could, and loving on people. What an amazing legacy to leave behind! I think about all the lives that she has touched in some small way-- it was her great smile, quiet demeanor, her sweet "Welcome to Chick-fil-A", it was the joy she emitted in every interaction. Her actions challenged us to be better servants of people. How can I be a Ms. Mary today?
I am not quite sure how to end this blog post... or if I even want to. Ending this post is closing a chapter in my life that I was quite frankly not ready to close. Of course, I would have never been ready. There were lots of tears today, many hugs, and few words. The more we said, the more we cried so we stopped talking. And while I know that moving closer to her family is the best thing for her in the long run I can't help but wish things could be different. I suppose for everything there is a season and I was blessed to experience an incredible season with Ms. Mary.
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