这是心灵鸡汤的一篇文章,正好又是圣诞,而且又是四六级考试前夕,献给各位。
Last Christmas
was a very difficult time for me. My family and all of my close friends were
back home in Florida, and I was all alone in a
rather cold California.
I was working too many hours and became very sick.
I was working a
double shift at the Southwest Airlines ticket counter, it was about 9:00 P.M.
on Christmas Eve, and I was feeling really miserable inside. There were a few
of us working and very few customers waiting to be helped. When it was time for
me to call the next person to the counter, I looked out to see the
sweetest-looking old man standing with a cane. He walked very slowly over to
the counter and in the faintest voice told me that he had to go to New Orleans. I tried to
explain to him that there were no more flights that night and that would have
to go in the morning. He looked so confused and very worried. I tried to find
out more information by asking if he had a reservation or if he remembered when
he was supposed to travel, be he seemed to become more confused with each
question. He just kept saying, “She said I have to go to New Orleans.”
After much time,
I was able to at least find out that this old man was dropped off at the curb
on Christmas Eve by his sister-in-law and told to go to New Orleans, where he had family. She had
given him some cash and told him just to go inside and buy a ticket. When I
asked if he could come back tomorrow, he said that she was gone and that he had
no place to stay. He then said he would wait at the airport until tomorrow. Naturally,
I felt a little ashamed. Here I was feeling very sorry for myself about being
alone on Christmas, when this angel named Clarence MacDonald was sent to me to
remind me of what being alone really meant. It broke my heart.
Immediately, I
told him we would get it all straightened out, and our Customer Service agent
helped to book him a seat for the earliest flight the next morning. We gave him
the senior citizens’ fare, which gave him some extra money for traveling. About
this time he started to look very tired, and when I stepped around the counter
to ask him if he was all right, I saw that his leg was wrapped in a bandage. He
had been standing on it that whole time, holding a plastic bag full of clothes.
I called for a
wheelchair. When the wheelchair came, we all stepped around to help him in, and
I noticed a small amount of blood on his bandage. I asked how he hurt his leg,
and he said that he had just had bypass surgery and an artery was taken from
his leg. Can you imagine? This mans had had heart surgery, and then shortly
afterward, was dropped off at the curb to buy a ticket with no reservation to
fly to New Orleans,
alone!
I never really
had a situation like this, and I wasn’t sure what I could do. I went back to
ask my supervisors if we could find a place for him to stay. They both said
yes, and they obtained a hotel voucher for Mr. MacDonald for one night and a
meal ticket for dinner and breakfast. When I came back out, we got his plastic
bag of clothes and cane together and gave the porter a tip to take him
downstairs to wait for the airport shuttle. I bent down to explain the hotel, food
and itinerary again to Mr. MacDonald, and then patted him on the arm and told
him everything would be just fine.
As he left he
said, “Thank you,” bent his head and started to cry. I cried too. When I went
back to thank my supervisor, she just smiled and said, “I love stories like
that. He is your Christmas Man.”