Give Customers The Gift Of The Angels

He looked better than he had in years, but his aura held a definite cloud of heaviness as he walked up to the pharmacy. I could feel his sadness as if it had punched me in the face. I was determined to lighten his load. ”Good morning Doug!!” I said. ”How can I make your life better today?”

He turned to the gentleman who was with him and said: ”This guy has an amazing memory. It has been months since I’ve seen him, and he calls me by name.” The man said, “I know, he always remembers mine as well.” Dan turned to me and asked: ”How do you do that?”

I responded with my standard: ”It’s easy!! I only have to remember the people I like!”. I like everybody, so it wasn’t really as if blowing sunshine up his butt. It WAS good timing though as his next sentence was: ”Corey, I’m staying out at The Benjamin House (the local homeless shelter), as I am recently divorced and unemployed. I’m starting over and they are helping me get back on my feet. They need a list of the medications I am on, will that be a big hassle?”

I said as I put my hand on his arm, “No sir, the robot people are off today!” and gave him my best smile. In two minutes he had his printout and turned towards the door. He stopped, paused and said, “Seriously, how can you remember names like that?”.

I said, “Well, my friend, it’s just that important to me. Whenever I meet someone for the first time I burn the image of their face into my brain and if possible, I associate their name with that of someone I already know who has the same name. If I don’t know someone who shares their name, I study them for something special about them, say the coat they are wearing or a unique tattoo, and I connect their name with that image. It makes me feel good to remember someone’s name.”

“It makes them feel good too!” He said with a bright smile. He was a handsome man and I knew he’d get back on his feet, I just knew it!!

A couple days later, he came back into the pharmacy with a voucher from the Benjamin House who had agreed to pay for his medicines. I said, “Boy Doug, you look great today!”. ”You did it again” he said with a comfortable smile.

“You know, Benjamin House said I could take this voucher anywhere, but I brought it here because you know me and I didn’t think you’d give me a big hassle about it. Ya know?”.

I said “It turns out that the robot people are off again today” and gave him my best smile. 30 minutes later he was all set. As he turned to leave he said warmly and calmly: “Thank you. Just thank you.”. I just smiled and taped his forearm.

I wanted to say: ”Thank you Doug for putting your trust in me. It makes me feel special when someone looks at me that way.” But, it wasn’t about me. It was about someone in society telling him he was just like everyone else and there was no need to categorize him in any way, shape, or form. He wasn’t “homeless” or “down on his luck”. He was just Doug. Today that was enough!!

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