I had an interesting/disturbing exchange at the store yesterday.
I was assigned for most of the evening to self-scan, but was spelling Larry at the express lane while he broke for his lunch. The woman who was first to come up for my turn at the register was well over the fifteen-item express limit, and Larry had started to remind her that she was over, but I had said "Oh, no, it's OK," since she had already loaded about half her purchases onto the belt.
The woman had a defeated look to her. "He sure seemed grumpy."
"Well, he lost his partner last August, and still isn't over it," I explained. Larry and David had been together for twenty-two years.
"Oh. Yes. Well. I've just had a death in the family. Yesterday."
I gulped.
"I'm amazed I didn't start crying while I was here in the store."
"You have every right to cry. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise."
She nodded. "That, and because of it, I've had to move real fast."
I chanced to ask "Just how close a relative...?"
"Immediate family," she replied. Ooops. And thud. It was code for her lover died, and she's been forced from the home they shared by her lover's family. "I guess I should've seen the express lane sign, but my eyes have been real bleary."
"That, and it isn't very well lit. A lot of people don't see it." Truth to tell, a lot of people don't bother to look, but I wasn't about to say that under these circumstances.
We finished up with the scanning, bagging, and paying for her purchases. "Just remember, you have every right to cry. And you have every right to be angry."
She looked up at me, a bit startled. "You're right, I am angry. I'm a bit of everything right now. Thank-you, you've been very kind. And tell that other fellow that I appologize for being judgemental. I didn't mean to be."
Fortunately, the rest of the evening was uneventful.