Thankfulness

She came to our drive-thru' almost every Tuesday.

It was always in the later afternoon, but usually right before I would leave for the day at 4.

I'm not sure what her name was. I called her "Mortianna" - you know, like the witch from "Robin Hood"? The one Kevin Costner is in :) Not because she was an evil lady - but because she kinda looked like her, except both of her eyes were the same color and she was super sweet!

We couldn't see the people that were at our speaker out back, we could only hear them. And we always knew when she would pull up in her old turquoise-blue car. She always ordered the same thing:

The country-fried steak special. On Tuesdays at KFC, it was only $1.99. We were under strict orders tho' - no substitutions. See, it came with the steak, mashed potatoes, coleslaw & a biscuit, and if people didn't want the coleslaw & maybe wanted mac-n-cheese instead? Too bad. For only $1.99, you get what's in the picture.

But, not for this lady - we gave her whatever she wanted. Usually it was green beans. And usually she wanted a Root Beer, but every once in a while she'd switch it up and throw us off and get a Pepsi [usually on the days we would already have a Root Beer filled up for her] :)

I remember one afternoon in particular tho' - she came to the window and while I was handing her her food, we were chit-chatting about something, and I don't even remember how it came up, but I noticed she was wearing dog-tags. I believe I asked who's those were - and she responded that they were hers. And she proceeded to tell me that she had served overseas when she was a younger lady. She had done a bit of nursing and a bit of anything else that needed done.

Upon hearing that, I looked her straight in the eye and said, "Well I want to thank you very much for your service to our country."

She looked at me - and her eyes suddenly welled up with tears. And the next words that came out of her mouth were so sad: "No one has ever said that to me before."

This sweet lady? No one had ever taken the time to hear her story and thank her for what she did? She probably saved a few lives while nursing. She's a hero.

Who will you thank today?