This may seem a small thing, but to me, at the time, it meant everything.
I had been downtown with a job counselor who was helping me choose an interview outfit. Part of this program, that helps people with disabilities get jobs, was a clothing voucher. So my counselor and I headed to a store, parked in the garage and got our parking stickers stamped with the time we thought we needed.
Well, you put 2 women picking out clothes with a strict budget and that too, during a sale ... and what you get is "overtime". My counselor left just before me, so when I went to leave, sure enough, I had overstayed the time allowed by the stamped ticket, and owed $3.00.
I had no cash with me, as I had forgotten to grab some change before leaving, and was otherwise broke and overdrawn at the bank.
So while three dollar is a small amount of money, it was everything for me.
If I used my debit card, there would be a large bank charge, and I had no change. I offered to leave my purse and go home to get the $3.00, but that wasn't going to work either. The woman employee seemed sympathetic, and the man behind the counter was fairly gruff with me -- and I didn't blame him, I was upset with myself too.
Anyhow, the woman looked like she was thinking hard, then she swiped some kind of a "master" card and told me to go ahead and go. "I'll come back and pay the $3.00," I said, but she just replied, "No, that's ok. Have a nice day."
Not only was it a nice day, it was an AWESOME day! A wonderful, kind city worker. I'm thankful.
