Better than a tip

There is a saying that goes something like this: "Satisfaction is it's own reward". I got to experience that first hand today.

I had a perm scheduled for this afternoon. At this stage in the game, perms are old hat for me. I can knock them out in about two hours. The woman I had this afternoon was older (actually, I have yet to do a perm on someone younger than 50) and pretty much blind. She had a ton of hair too. The perm she wanted rolled was on yellow rods, which are about 1/8 of an inch in diameter, in other words, really small. Combine that with a ton of hair, it was all set up to be a LONG afternoon.

I got started and we chatted amicably whilst I was rolling her hair. After I was done, I set her under a dryer for a few minutes while she called her son to come pick her up. Turns out her son got called away for work and wouldn't be able to pick her up for several hours. The soonest she would have a ride was when her daughter-in-law got off work around five.

Here is where the satisfaction part comes in. The woman wanted to pay with a gift certificate she got as a present (the school offers gift certificates...they are actually quite popular) and give me the difference as a tip (It would have came out to about a five dollar tip). Well, the school has a policy that prevents cashing out a gift certificate in exchange for money. So, I got no tip. When I informed the woman of this, she was crestfallen. Then she asked me something that actually brought a tear to my eye. She wanted me to sit with her while she waited on her ride. It was about 3:45pm at this point in time and her ride wasn't due for at least an hour. I didn't even hesitate to say yes.

I have a brother who is blind and my own eyesight is slowly but surely going south. So I can relate, on some levels, to not being able to see. As I sat with this woman, we chatted about books we had read and TV programs we watched (I was surprised to learn that she was an American Idol fan...where does the reach of that insidious program stop?). Several times in the conversation, she asked me for my name and address so she could send me a tip. Each time, I politely declined. Finally, about 10 to 5, her ride showed up. As I escorted her to the door, she told me that this was the best afternoon she had in a very long time.

So, yes, a tip would have been nice. But the satisfaction of making a nearly blind old woman's day was more than any amount of money would have equalled.