People Through The Years

I was ordering contact lenses yesterday, and I had to phone the company where I get them. The perky (I always think of Lou Grant's "I HATE perky") customer rep asked for my phone number, and I gave her my office phone. "Oh," she said, is this Ana Garcia?"

I laughed. Ana was one of our firm's secretaries years ago, and she must have used the office phone number to order HER contacts as well. I told the rep that Ana had moved to LA years ago, and she corrected the account. But then I began to think...

My firm will turn 16 in November, and we've had a large number of people come and go. Mirta has been with us a decade, and will be there when the doors close. Norma and Andrea were there at the beginning, and stayed all through the golden period (when we were making money!) and then, wisely, jumped ship when they realized the voyage was going to end.

As much as I downplay the significance of our firm, I guess I have to admit we were an important part of folks' lives, even if just for a brief time.

When Norma started with us, she was a debt -ridden, single Mom. Paul and I paid off her credit cards, and made her cut them up, except for one. As we paid her bonuses, we treated her like a member of the family, giving her financial advice and guidance.

She's told me over the years how much that's meant to her, and I understand.

I guess I've always felt it was a "pay it forward" type of thing. I grew up on tales of my father's boss, Mr. Morris Katz. He was a powerful and scary man. When he died, I remember he warranted several columns in the NY Times obit section.

But, I was told, when my parents wanted to buy their first house, my Dad went to Mr. Katz, and asked for a loan. My Dad was pretty new at the firm, and Mr. Katz might have told him to go pound sand. Instead, Mr. Katz said yes, and my parents bought their dream, a 3/2 split level on Long Island, a house that truly became my family's home for 17 years.

The tale of Mr. Katz always resonated with me, and throught the years, as my father became more succesful as a salesman, and Mr. Katz more crochety and tough to deal with, my father never entertained thoughts of leaving the company, because of Mr. Katz's trust in him, back in 1962.

I guess I always hoped to emulate that as well...

We were very generous with Ana, although my partner's difficult personality in those years probably contributed to a nerve-related hospitalization! Ana was a great secretary, and would have lasted for years, but her daughter had dreams of attending college in LA, where Ana grea up, and, being an old school Cuban Mom, Ana moved the whole family there to make it happen.

I think the daughter ended up getting accepted into community college, and I don't know if she even finished. I haven't spoken to Ana for years. She called Mirta some years ago and asked for a loan. I strongly advised Mirta against it, and Mirta thanks me even today that she didn't send the money --Ana would likely never paid her back.

I hope she's doing well, of course, and assume she found another vendor for her contact lenses.