Angels*

I have always believed God puts people on earth as His angels to test us. When I see someone on the corner asking for money for food, I cannot keep driving until I find a place to buy them a meal. I believe God puts people in the world to see how we will treat them and if we will try to help them, while they also make us realize how lucky we are to have the things we have.

In my hometown, there was a man that walked around in 90 degree weather with a winter stocking cap and a sweatshirt on looking for cans. We called him “Ernest the Can Man,” and I saved all of my cans for him. When he got to my house, he acted like he hit the jackpot. Our family gave him dinner on numerous occasions and enjoyed every minute with him. He was hard to understand and was scared to be touched or looked in the eye.

At Olive Garden, there is someone similar to Ernest. She rolls silverware for the restaurant. For the sake of anonymity, I'll call her Maggie . I think Maggie may be an angel. Before my shift started tonight, I was back in the checkout station talking with Maggie. She informed me that she had to go to the doctor next week because they thought she might have a hole in her heart, and she may need to undergo major heart surgery. This not only made me sad, but it made me want to do something.

Maggie has some intellectual disabilities and is hard not to love. It is hard to understand her sometimes and almost everybody that works with me treats her like filth. When I first started at Olive Garden, I was completely shocked when I heard a guy talk to her the way he did.
“MOVE Maggie! Go roll your damn silverware,” he screamed and shoved her. Maggie stumbled a little but caught her balance and went back to her station. Comments like these happen often. Maggie can be a troublemaker at times and loves attention from people, but I don’t think she realizes how cruel they are being to her. The attention they give her is negative and mean, but she takes it as someone talking to her and having fun.

It hurts my heart when I see her trying to push past people to put the bin of silverware she has rolled out on the floor, or when she has been told to roll a certain amount before she leaves and when she is not looking, people come and steal her silverware, so they don’t have to roll their own at the end of the night.

Living on the opposite side of town, Maggie rides the bus as close as she can get to Olive Garden and then walks the rest of the way unless she gets a ride from someone at work. One of my friends, Tim, gives her rides in the winter. This winter, Tim was going to leave the state for a month on a missionary trip, and he asked me if I would pick Maggie up on the nights I worked. I agreed, but he didn’t end up leaving. Sometimes when Tim isn’t working, I catch Maggie sitting at a table at the end of the night looking out the window, waiting for her ride home.

Maggie is not only known as the infamous “silverware roller,” but she also is known for the bracelets she makes for everyone that works at Olive Garden. We call them “Maggie bracelets,” and everyone owns at least ten of them, I’m sure. She makes the bracelets out of beads she buys. If you come to work not wearing one, you can count on her telling you to take a new one. Many tables ask about the bracelets we wear.

The reason I wrote this entry on Maggie was because of the way she talked to me at work when she told me about her heart surgery. She talked to me like I was one of her friends, and I sat wondering who would come visit her in the hospital. She asked me if I would, and I will. I just hope other people do, too. People need to know that it is not okay to treat someone poorly because they are different.