HIS NAME WAS A.J.

He was 85 years old. “I always saw people driving down the road talking on cell phones and wondered who they could be talking to.” He was a man who had seen a lot in his lifetime. “I’m retired now,” he told me, “and just trying to stay healthy.”

His grandchildren bought him his cell phone and insisted he take it with him when he went out – just in case… “How many grandchildren do you have, Sir?” I never did find out exactly, but they are scattered, that’s for sure! A couple in California, a couple in Mexico – I wonder did he mean MEXICO, Mexico, or NEW Mexico? One grandson in California is 16 and already towers at 5’9”! “He plays Varsity Basketball. I am very proud of him!” he beamed. I even learned that he has 5 great-grand babies.

“I live down here in New Orleans, where The Storm was” he told me. He was talking about Hurricane Katrina, of course. “It must have been awful, Sir.” Then his genteel 85 year old gentleman proceeded to fully shatter my heart with this story:

I was in WW11 – it looks the same. I am doing things I never thought
I’d do.
You know I have to pay my bills over the phone now? I even
have to call the
people every month just to find out how much my bills
are! We don’t get them
in the mail. There’s no post office there any more.
I got a bill the other
day. It was from October of last year.

Then A.J.’s tone went from melancholy to…I don’t even know what word to use to describe it…Deflated, maybe?

You look around and things that were there just aren’t anymore. It’s enough
To make you want to sit down and cry…

Then he did!

This kind gentleman of 85 years who’d been through The War, raised a family, is not only a grandfather, but a great-grandfather, lived through The Depression, witnessed countless technological advancements, loved and lost…this very proud man was weeping at the devastation that Nature left in Katrina’s wake.

It was more than my own soft heart could bear and I cried right along with him – and at every retelling of his story since. I feel very honoured that he shared his soul with me in the five or ten minutes that I give to each customer a day that was allotted to him.

A.J. touched something very deep inside me in that conversation and I’ll not soon forget him. He will never know. I wonder, often, about the impact people have on each other – especially in brief, unintentional encounters such as these. Have I touched someone’s life? Boy, I hope so!

Oh yeah, the reason for his call to Customer Care? “I don’t know what all these extra buttons are for on my cell phone…” My translation? “I just wanted to talk to someone…” I am glad it was me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just something I wrote last year when I was working for a call center. The people I talked to on those calls, who lived through Katrina, all had the same melancholy in their voices. Many of them touched me. One broke my heart...




And so, today, this is...
Life As I Know It