I’ve been asked to help at the Information Booth lately as part of my new duties. I relieve the person who is there all day during her breaks and lunch time, and sometimes help out at the end of the day as well, but by that time it’s usually fairly quiet, so it’s all good.
I’ve learned quickly not to have a personality when dealing with the public at the Info Booth. The people coming there aren’t happy and aren’t looking for someone to joke with them. No siree. They are mad about getting tickets, they don’t want to take the blame for themselves, they want everyone to know they’re annoyed and they want to exercise their rights… loudly. That’s 85% of the cases I should say, some are more, humm, civil… Not taking it personally at all, I just ask how I can assist them, give them the info or forms they need and with my eyes glazing over, I tell them to fill all the forms out and wait for the number I have also given them to be called at the counter.
Luckily, there are certain moments that make it all worthwhile and stop me from wanting to take some “Special Jonestown Kool-Aid”.
Yesterday was actually fairly quiet in there for me, the waiting room was full-ish but for once there wasn’t a long line-up of people ready to take a stab at me, it gave me time to do a bit of rearranging in this small room, turning my back to the window. That’s when an older gentleman in his 70′s came to the booth and asked if I could verify something for him, he seemed a bit confused and said: “the way things worked today with computers, it’s so complicated”. He was speaking with a very thick Italian accents and his English wasn’t very good but he could still get by. I took a look at his ticket, punched the info in our system and saw that it had already been dealt with properly, the matter was closed and completed. I informed the gentleman, told him he didn’t have to worry about it at all, he had taken care of it and his record was clean. He looked straight at me through the thick plexiglass window separating us and gave a great big smile. He then tried to slip his hand through the tiny space we use to slide forms back and forth with guests and got stuck before going too far… I took it he wanted to shake my hand to show his appreciation, so I reached for his and our fingers touched in a way suggesting a weird “thank-you-handshake” but with fingers.. Still smiling, he then said: “Thank you for helping me” and turned around to leave. I too turned around to continue the rearranging job I had started earlier and then suddenly stopped… my eyes starting to tear up… it totally dawned on me right there and then just how much that man looked like my dad, especially with that smile he had just flashed me… I took a few seconds to compose myself and then shook it off and continued…
A few minutes later, that man reappeared at my window… I couldn’t help but smile first this time. He said he wanted to do something for his son but he didn’t know how to go about it… His son had gotten a speeding ticket and he wanted to arrange for a court date on his behalf. I took a look at this new ticket, all was in order, all was in time. I gave him a form to complete and a number to wait his turn. Told him to put his son’s information as it appeared on the ticket and then sign his own name as the person requesting the court date. He took the info and went into the waiting room, only to show up again at my window a little later on to ask me if I could help him fill out the form and write the information down because his English wasn’t very good…
As employees of the city and the court system, we, legally, cannot assist anyone filling out these forms, I take it from past conversations that guests have used the excuse that city staff helped them fill out the forms and had made mistakes putting the blame on them while in court, etc… So I explained that I personally couldn’t help but that anyone sitting in the waiting room could certainly give him a hand. He turned to look at the crowd and for a moment it looked like he wasn’t up to the task of asking those strangers to help him. I took the bait and told him to wait a few seconds. I came out of the booth and asked for everyone’s attention: “Could someone be kind enough to help my friend here fill out his trial request form, he’s having some difficulty with his English and unfortunately as employees of the court I cannot assist him in that regards, but anyone that doesn’t work here can certainly do him this favour”. One lady with a small child whom I had just directed earlier said she would gladly help him. I came back to my gentleman, put my arm around his shoulders and started walking him to where the lady was sitting, winning me another one of these smiles reminding way too much of my late father… I felt totally weird again looking at him and I didn’t want to show too much emotions so I hurried back in the booth only to be stopped by one of our security guards telling me I had just done a very nice thing. I replied that nice people deserve nice things…
But in my heart I was just so incredibly happy to have had just another one of those moments… with my dad.
I do believe that even when they are gone, they come and say hello once in awhile
Yep, I’m crying a bit now…
