| I am a sales rep and I travel all over England to visit my customers. I will frequently arrange to meet a client first thing in the morning and I usually have several visits to complete in a day.
One cold February morning I was due to visit a store at 9am. I parked my car, bundled my scarf around me and headed up the street towards his shop front.
The small lane where his store was located was partially blocked by two large, ruddy faced workmen who were tearing up the concrete. I braced myself for the expected cat calls. I was up early, out in the cold, and probably about to be made a spectacle of by two men I didn’t even know.
Then I stopped and remembered that my own father. Both he and my grandfather had spent much of their early careers working outside in similar jobs before they qualified and became engineers. I remembered how hard Dad worked, in all kinds of weathers; how he’d come home with sunburn or frostnip. I realised that if I was cold then these two guys were probably freezing, given that it looked as though they’d already been working for hours.
My customer’s shop wasn’t open but I was beyond being annoyed at his lateness. I went to a coffee shop around the corner, ordered myself a hot chocolate, then I ordered two more with whipped cream.
I made my way down the lane towards the workmen. One of them turned to me with a wide smile and greeted me with a joking "Oh lovey, you shouldn’t have!" To his shock, I passed him the tray with the two steaming hot chocolates. I replied, "Maybe not. But it’s too cold to be working outside today."
I got two looks of genuine thanks, and a timely reminder that it’s as easy to be kind as it is to prejudge – but the former is so much nicer!
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