Every year for my birthday, Donna takes me out for a lunch of Indian food. We go to Atlanta, because we donāt have an Indian restaurant in our small town. On our last trip, as we sat down to eat, the waitress asked what weād like to drink. I ordered a Diet Cokeāthe all-natural variety, of courseāand she walked off to draw it from the fountain of multiple sodas available at the restaurant.
As we were eating our meal, she finally brought the drink to the table, after an unusually long time in our experience with that place. We noticed that at the serving station, there was a two-liter bottle of Diet Coke, so I asked the waitress about it, having some suspicions about how it got there.
Reluctantly, she explained that their fountain of sodas was out of Diet Coke, so they had gone to the grocery store across the busy highway to get a bottle. I was touched.
When she had discovered that their fountain was out, she didnāt tell me that she couldnāt serve me the drink I had ordered. She didnāt tell me how much trouble it would be to go across the highway to get the bottle. She just got in her car and got what I asked for.
If I hadnāt asked about the bottle I saw, Iām sure she would never have told me the story at all. I felt like this womanāwhom I had never metāactually cared about me, and I felt closer to her. Her service certainly added to our experience and to my special day.
I wonder how we would all feel about ourselves and about others if we served each other in this way. What if we looked for ways we could serve, and we did everything we could, without complaining or seeking acknowledgment.
This humble woman taught me a lesson in real service that I hope I remember.