I was leaving Prescott and knowing that gas stations were pretty scarce once I got on the road I pulled into a little station that caught my eye right at the edge of town to fuel up. The layout of the fueling area was quite narrow and oddly inconvenient, the pumps were old and several were taped off, marked out of order. This appeared to be an old full service station that had been converted to self service. There was a small convenience store which appeared kind of dark and dated, converted from the old service station building. There was only one other vehicle parked at the pumps at the time, and since I didn’t see it fueling, I assumed the owner was inside the store. I popped out the drivers door and proceeded to swipe my card and fuel up...
After I got my fuel I went inside to go to the bathroom and to get a cup of coffee for the road. Now I always move away from the pumps before going inside, but I didn’t see any other place to park, and the only other patron was already parked at the pump ahead of me, so I left the van at the pumps and ran inside. There was a man and a woman standing in front of the counter having a discussion so I looked around for the restrooms but quickly realized there were none, and a quick glance over to the coffee service area revealed a standard home Mr. Coffee type coffee pot as the only option, so I make the quick decision to just find another place with restrooms and coffee, and I returned to the van to leave. Now this is where things took a twist...
As I was working on enabling my google maps app to guide me back to Quartzite, the woman I saw inside the store came hurriedly out the door and straight up to my driver’s side window. Now she’s a very small older woman probably not even five foot tall, long gray hair pulled back into a ponytail and dropping to her waist, wearing a big puffy well worn black jacket. I rolled down my window to speak to her but she immediately got on me about parking at the pumps, what right did I have to block the pumps, that she has an alarm system that warns her when people park at the pumps for long periods, 'and she kept mentioning the alarms were going off. At first I wasn’t sure how to respond, I was really surprised and taken a bit back. I told her I just ran in to go to the bathroom and to grab some coffee, but she kept telling me that I needed to move, I was blocking the pumps and the alarms were going off. Again I tried to explain that I had fueled up, then ran inside, I didn’t see any other parking spaces, but I just stopped trying to justify my position and told her I was sorry. I apologized several times and was getting ready to leave when her whole attitude changed...
She began to apologize over and over, she mentioned the alarms again as if they had influenced her, and she said she didn’t realize I had purchased fuel. She said let me make it up to you, I’ll get you a free cup of coffee and I’ll bring it out to you, all the time she seems to be beating herself up for the episode. I thanked her for the offer but told her it was okay, there was no need to make anything up to me but she insisted. At which point I figured it was best to accept, but I told her I would move the van and come inside to get the coffee. As I pulled through the fueling area I found a couple of parking spots on the other side of the building, parked, and made my way back into the store...
All the time she was running in and out of the store, watching me, I guess to see if I was really coming back. As I walked back in she continued to apologize while she poured a cup of coffee from the brewing pot. She asked me how I liked my coffee and I said sweet and light, so she proceeded to grab the artificial sweetener, the only sweetener she had, to which I intervened, and told her I’d just take it black. As she walked toward me with the open cup of coffee in her left hand she threw her arms open and gave me a big apologetic hug. I hugged her back, being careful not to disturb the still outstretched arm holding the coffee. I thanked her for the coffee as I took it from her hand, and reached for a lid, but she said they don’t fit, they’re too big, that’s all I have...
The entire time I noticed she seemed really anxious, over stimulated, almost like she couldn’t help herself, the way she had reacted, and she seemed to be aware of it, even if she couldn’t control it. She seemed almost disgusted with herself and remained overly apologetic, even grabbing a small package of Oreo cookies and insisting I take them too. I didnt refuse them, it seemed the best thing to do...
Now I’m posting all of this not to embarrass or harass this woman, I believe there is a much bigger story here, one that humbles me, one that stopped me in my tracks and made me cautious not to just take the situation at face value. I did a google search on the station and what I found was not surprising, bad reviews, lots of comments on the ‘crazy lady’ from previous patrons, warning others to ‘stay away’, and I get it, I understand, but you know, I don’t know her situation, I don’t know what’s behind her perception of things, but inside of this ‘crazy’ woman is a heart of gold no one seems to take the time to see...
It’s obvious that her business is struggling, she may not be making ends meet, no help, and she’s just overwhelmed and maybe certain things, like the alarms, trip something inside her that causes her to react in a negative way. We’ve all been there, we’ve all been so wrapped up in our own personal life's dramas that we steamroll over other people...
I am going to make an effort to stop in to see her every time I’m in the area. I miss the days when people like this were not condemned but appreciated as ‘local color’. I can’t walk a mile in her shoes, I could never gather enough information to understand, and I don’t need to, all any of us has to do is to understand that you can’t know, you can’t understand, so be compassionate, as you would want others to be towards you...
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