Some of you have already read about Anabel Vargas. I wrote several blogs about her some time ago as she struggled with the Customs and Immigration Service to get her husband legally admitted to the United States after he voluntarily left and returned to Mexico. See Anabel #1, Anabel #2, and Anabel #3 to read these posts.

Today, I’m writing about her own story, as part of my People series. I wrote about Rise & Shine (click to read), the restaurant where she works, back in August. Anabel (they call her Bel-Bel at the restaurant) has worked there for 13 years, and she has been a waitress for twenty years.

I wanted to include a photo, but she wouldn’t let me take one. I’m not sure why. At her worst, she’s a very pretty lady. Oh, well.

When I asked her what she liked best about her job, her eyes lit up. She told me she loves the customers. She likes visiting with them, getting to know them, learning to know when they are particularly sad or happy about something. She enjoys meeting new people as they come in. She enjoys cheering them up when they are down and sharing in their joy when they are happy about something. She also likes to learn from her customers.

When I asked her what she disliked the most, she had to think for awhile. She has such a happy disposition it’s hard for her to think of negatives. Finally, she said the one thing she didn’t like about her job was customers with bad attitudes. She said she could understand when someone who was normally nice just happened to have a bad day and was not his or her normally friendly self. That was no problem. She would try to cheer them up, but if she couldn’t, she would understand and overlook any slights that might arise that day.

What really bothered her was customers who just always had a bad attitude. She hastened to say that these represented a very small minority, but there were some. There are apparently some customers of long standing, people who should know her and the other waitresses and the food well enough to know better, who just always had bad attitudes. Always complaining about the food or service of something, or maybe just frowning their way through life without a cheerful word for anyone. These are the ones who make her job difficult.

Personally, I have trouble seeing what anyone could fuss about with either the food or the service at Rise & Shine. These must be people who just go through life looking for something to complain about.

In addition to her husband, who has been back home as a legal immigrant for some months now, Anabel lives with her two sons. One is 17 and the other 13. I haven’t ever met either of these boys, but I would imagine, knowing their mother, that they are happy young men with attitudes of kindness.

Her parents live nearby and are very dear to her. Her mother has been fighting cancer for a number of months now, and Anabel has been at the center of efforts to help. Chemotherapy now has it in remission. I pray it will stay that way.

In her spare time, Anabel likes to knit and crochet. I’m not sure how much spare time she has, though, with her job, raising teenage boys, and helping with her mother.

Anabel is a quiet, happy, industrious young lady of great character. If you have people like her among those you deal with in your daily life, you are indeed blessed.

How many waitresses, cashiers and others who serve you do you know anything about? What do you do to let them know you care about them as individual human beings? Readers want to know.

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WANA: We may not have it all together, but together we have it all.

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For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

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Contact him at dnwalkertx (at) gmail (dot) com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.