"62 Years and She's Still the Prettiest Girl"

     There are some days where my faith in the human race are seriously diminished. Everyone has had those days. But then there are days like today where my whole outlook on the human population is seriously brightened. I had probably one of the best days at work that I've had in a very long time. Although it didn't start out that way.
     The one problem with working a restaurant that specializes in delicious comfort food is that when it comes to the summer time and it gets hot not too many people want to go out and eat a heavy meal. We still have our regulars that eat there come hell or high water but it is hard to deny that the numbers of tables that come in seriously diminishes in the hotter months. As a result it gets to be really slow for us servers, the downtime between our tables extends because we just don't have as many tables as we do in the colder months. Which, let's be real here, can be a major struggle. In short it gets boring. So it wasn't such a stretch for me to assume that the rest of my shift would be slow and I would get a lot of the little odds and ends finished up in the back that usually go overlooked when there are a lot of customers to serve. And for the most part I was right, it wasn't until the end of my shift that things got interesting.
     At around 3:30 (my shift was over around 4:00), this older couple came in and I greeted them like any other table and as I was leaving to go and grab their drinks the man grabbed my arm and let me know that they were celebrating their wedding anniversary. He then asked me to guess which anniversary it was. Now I have learned to avoid answering questions like that, because it really can lead to disaster, so I just smiled and waited for them to tell me. In my head I had guess 50 maybe 55 years at the most. I was completely shocked when he told me that they were celebrating their 62nd wedding anniversary today.
      I can't even imagine that. 62 years married to the same person? That is truly incredible. And even better? He grabbed my elbow a little later, after I had dropped off their meal and said to me, "Now isn't my bride beautiful? It's been 62 years and she still takes my breath away every time she smiles." I honestly thought that I was going to melt. That was probably the sweetest thing that I have ever heard, and I can only hope that someone will say that about me one day. I can only hope that somewhere there is someone who will want to put up with me for 62+ years haha.
     If that was the only awesome thing that happened I would write this off as a fantastic day, but there was one more incident at work today that made it even better. Another one of my tables overheard that it was the older couple's 62nd anniversary and they pulled me aside and asked if they could pay for them. It's been awhile since I've had encounters in my life that are inspiring like that. I love that there are still people in the world that are just as inspired as I am by a couple celebrating 62 years of marriage. I love that there are people who are generous enough to be willing to pay for the meal of complete strangers. It's days like today that remind me why I am still working at the grub. Like I said, one of the greatest days ever!

Much love,

-L