A few months ago, I was in a Whole Foods looking for something to drink. I wanted to avoid caffeine and refused to buy bottled water. Chrysanthemum tea in a bottle caught my eye. I took my first sip and was immediately transported back to my in-law apartment on 19th Avenue in San Francisco.
The year I moved off-campus at San Francisco State University (SFSU) I got a part-time job working as a cold-caller at Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb. They were an investment banking firm at the time, eventually changing owners/names and now defunct. My job was to call people on the phone from a stack of index cards. If I got a person on the phone, I would transfer the call to a broker.
By my senior year at SFSU, a couple of my pals—Janice and Lisi—and I, would trade off working for a senior broker, Mr. Lim. We no longer had to make cold calls; instead we answered Mr. Lim’s calls when he was on the phone, typed letters, and basically assisted him working as office assistants. Mr. Lim was first generation Chinese-American and most of his clients were Chinese. He was a very generous person and had a huge heart.
I don’t remember when a new gal, Sandra, started working at Lehman Brothers. As I recall she was related to one of Mr. Lim’s clients. We embraced her immediately. She was attending SFSU, also. She had a second job working at a café near Ocean Beach.
Sandra was also a generous person. I remember one time when I was home with a cold, she arrived at my doorstep with homemade wonton soup and chrysanthemum tea. The tea was packaged in little one serving packets—big yellow crystals. She left a few packets with me. As I recall, she often brought me homemade Chinese meals.
I was blessed to have Mr. Lim, his family, and Sandra in my life. At the time, I’m not sure if I didn’t take it all for granted. I look back now and realize how their generosity has affected my life. Perhaps “paying it forward” was a way of life for them. Because of them, I find myself wanting to help others, too.
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