Next meeting is August 8th, 2017

A Note From Your President...

It was a warm summer day when the door opened at work. A man stepped inside with both hands raised in the air, asked, “May I come in? I promise I’ll put my hands in my pockets and I won’t touch anything.” As he placed both hands in his pockets, I replied, “Of course, you are welcome to come in.” That was the beginning of getting to know Jim. We later learned he had previously been in a serious life altering accident, which caused him, among other things, to communicate differently and sometimes with more difficulty.

Jim came in many times, even after we moved to our new location. We never knew what mood he would be in, so we learned to proceed cautiously when he entered the store. We wanted to avoid upsetting him.

One time he said, “Ma’am, I have a question.” I said, “Yes, sir?” He replied, “Don’t call me sir.” I said, “Well, you just called me ma’am, and I’m a woman so I called you ‘sir’ because you are a man, right?” He said, “You got me there” and our friendly conversation continued. Another time he came in and saluted us saying, “Permission to come aboard Captain?” He was saluted back and told, “Permission granted.”

Most of the time, Jim came to buy foreign coins because he saw value in them and bought them to give to his favorite people. One day after making his purchase, I heard him say, “Just keep the change. I don’t want it back.” Even though it wasn’t much, I told the employees to put the change in a bag each time and subtract it from his following purchase.

He passed away a few years ago and we miss him. When I went to the visitation I told his family how he had touched the lives of our entire staff.

This year something very special happened. While at school one day, our young grandson was telling a teacher about his new watch. Among the questions the teacher asked him was where he had purchased it. When he told her it was from our business, she began to cry and told him, those were the people who were so kind to her brother.

So, I believe that we, as business owners and women, should never forget to be kind and compassionate to everyone we meet. It might be a client, customer, teller, server, cashier, lawyer, preacher, nurse, doctor or police officer. We may never know what difficulty they may have experienced or what they may be facing. Bring sunshine into their day, and we can go home with a smile.

TOUCH SOMEONE’S LIFE TODAY!

Melony Ramsey, President
Empowering Women