Today I had an older woman come in who had taken a photo out of her frame and since it hadn’t been matted parts of it had stuck to the glass and torn when she removed it. She was heartbroken. I felt terrible for her, so I scanned her photo, cropped it down to the man’s head and shoulders to lose most of the damage and then printed it as an 8×10. Then I put her damaged photo back in the original frame, lined it up as perfectly as I could with the parts still stuck to the glass and lightly taped it in place until I could get the back on it. It didn’t look too bad. I helped her pick out a frame for her new photo, put it all together with a nice matte around it and said ‘there he is’ while I set it on the counter. The woman started to cry. I was like OMG!!!! Turns out the photo was of her husband that passed away from cancer five years ago today. She was upset that she’d damaged the original photo, but happy to have this new one to put beside it. Well geeze, I was trying so hard not to cry and we spent a few somber minutes talking about her husband’s passing, my dad’s passing, the sadness, the good times, etc. She was a really nice lady and I enjoyed talking to her. Left me in a bit of an emotional fog for a while, but I was pleased to have helped her. Just a little thing like printing and framing a photo turned her sad day into something a little bit better.
And that’s why I love my job.
A very touching story Jen, I can only hope that I get the same opportunitys with my new path in life.