Annie

I first met Annie about four years ago... she works in the women's section of the one and only department store in our town. Annie is the embodiment of customer service in that store. Not only does she know all of the merchandise in her section, but she knows exactly where to find it, what will look good on 'women of a certain age' and if something isn't perfect for you, she gently suggests something better. I don't usually get so friendly with salespeople in stores, but there was just some tiny connection with Annie that just called out to me... nothing that can be explained, just felt.

After about a year of shopping with Annie's help, I spoke to the manager about "that very nice lady in the women's department" and the manager suggested I call the main offices of the store. So I did that, telling them about Annie's helpfulness and friendliness and genuine concern that her customers get just what they were looking for instead of settling for just what they found on the hangers. Over the past few years, I think I called the main offices about Annie's exemplary customer service at least six or seven times.

In February of last year, I gave Annie a little red gift bag filled with pretty Valentine soaps and candies. I can't explain it, but even as Annie's smile lit up that women's department, she just seemed a bit sad to me and I thought a Valentine would be the right thing to do.

For Christmas the year before that, I made a Happiness Box for Annie... pretty little box that I decorated with her name and holiday embellishments, and I included a pen with her initial and some pretty papers to get her started on her mission of Being and Staying Happy. Annie was positively thrilled with that Happiness Box and rather than her usual little hug she gave me a giant hug as if we'd known one another for all of our lives and I'd just given her the world.

This past summer, I hardly went into that store for anything because we were just busy and I didn't really need anything. When August was over and I went there looking for sales on the summer merchandise, I was disappointed because I didn't see Annie in the women's department. I asked one of the other ladies and they told me her schedule had changed a bit. Between September and the
week before Christmas, I popped into the store from time to time hoping to say hello to Annie and wish her a Merry Christmas. No Annie. Oh well. I found some bargains but it wasn't much fun searching for things that Annie would have recommended.

And then... this afternoon.... I was just coming back into the house with Savannah and I saw the mail truck coming up our hill. I brought Savannah into the house and then went back outside so I could catch the mailman on his way back down the hill... I wanted to wish him a Happy New Year and just say hello.... I had left some baked goodies in the mailbox for him last week and wanted to ask if he had enjoyed the cookies.

I was standing there at the edge of my driveway and noticed that our regular mailman Charlie had another person in the truck with him... I figured that he was training a new replacement for his off-days and vacation days because the other replacement girl had moved out of town.  And as soon as that thought went into and out of my mind, Charlie's trainee turned around and we saw one another and we both just screamed at the same time.... it was Annie!  She quickly got out of that truck and we hugged one another as if we were long-lost sisters... and Charlie sat there shaking his head with his mouth hanging open and saying "What? What?!"

The first thing Annie said to me after that great big hug was that she was still using her Happiness Box and there had been times during the past year that the box "saved her day."  The light in Annie's eyes when she said that was genuine and personal, and it just made me smile and laugh and it made me ridiculously happy just knowing that I had made Annie happy.

I have no idea what the 'connection' is between myself and Annie but what started out as a salesclerk helping a customer blossomed into a sort of friendship without either one of us knowing much about the other.

I am a firm believer that people who come into one's life don't just appear by accident... people come into your life at times when you need them and they oftentimes go out of your life when the need disappears. These past four or five days have been so very depressing on this road... cloudy and damp weather without a drop of sun, and then there's the emptiness that always comes after Christmas which brings memories of past holidays to haunt one's soul day after day.

Seeing Annie this afternoon was like a breath of fresh summer air and sunshine and I have no idea why... I hardly know this woman. But for some reason two years ago, I just felt that Annie needed a Happiness Box and I made one for her and that infrequent salesclerk/customer relationship suddenly turned into something more because of a pretty little cardboard box with a purpose that Annie understood immediately.

Finding Annie again was not an accident. She is still working at that same department store, but only in the evenings now because she is in training at our local post office during the day. Annie will be delivering the mail on Charlie's route on his days off and when he takes vacation. I don't think Annie is married, being that she's working two jobs now, and I do think that Annie may need some new people in her life. That's just a guess... just a feeling, and I don't know why it occurred to me.

I plan to make it a point to see Annie on Saturdays when she delivers the mail on our road here. I will tell her about our tea parties on Thursdays... and ask her if she'd like to join us when we have our holiday parties.

I'm still smiling. For whatever reason in this universe right now in this little Hill Country corner, seeing Annie in that mail truck today just made me happy. Well, that's something else to add to my own Happiness Box.