…you could take a lesson in apologizing from a boy named Jack. Jack was visiting an outpost of Powell’s Bookstore in Portland when he had an unfortunate regurgitory incident. Employees cleaned up. “It was gigantic in diameter,” Bookstore manager Jennifer Wicka told Buzzfeed. (She estimated that the puke in question had a 10- to 12-foot spatter radius.) But such is life in a retail environment.
What is rarer is a lovely apology for upchuck. A few days after the hork happenstance, the bookstore received this note.
Here’s another shot of the apology letter, from Buzzfeed:
Obviously no one performs peristaltic pyrotechnics in Powell’s on purpose. But just as you should apologize when you accidentally step on someone’s foot, so should you when you accidentally ralph in aisle one. Jack (and/or his parents) clearly understood the impact of his technicolor yawn, expressed regret and made amends. With humor. Bravo to Jack, who was raised right.
i just had a looong day at the library during which a customer was rude and abusive to me and flat-out accused me of lying to her when I told I couldn’t help her with what she wanted. And then she made snide comments about me to all the rest of the people working at the computers and nobody stuck up for me – people I have helped with their resumes and helped print out their baseball tickets and boarding passes and to whom I have lent a flash drive when they didn’t have one. I have also cleaned up my fair share of puke. So this note from this lovely little boy made me burst into tears. Thanks Marjorie! I feel better now.
I love “Attention Barf cleaners” on the envelope.
Aw, Paula, I’m so sorry!! You are brilliant at your job and librarians rule and you should have a puke-free and attitude-free life full of appreciative patrons. Mean people suck.
Oh, this is lovely – how utterly humiliating to lose control in public – and yet how wise to still know that YOU’RE not the only person who needs to be considered in that moment.