My mother is 75 years old and five feet tall. On a good day, if I keep after her to eat, she’ll weigh 102 pounds. About 30 years ago, she was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. Her doctor told her she would be in a wheelchair in six months and would not walk again. Through sheer, persistent faith and inner strength, she still walks, albeit slowly and somewhat awkwardly. Her house back in Leawood, Kansas is a split level, requiring mulitple trips up and down two abbreviated flights of stairs each day. She lives alone. My father died in 1982 and she never remarried. Her hearing is fading. While I was in the hospital, she made 6 trips to Nashville. At Speciality Select, she slept in a chair next to my bed. Despite her difficulty hearing, she was so atuned to me that ever time I pushed my cheek into the pad next to my head to call the nurse, she would get up to see what I needed. At Stallworth, they found her a roll-away bed to sleep on that made her more comfortable.
At some point in the last couple of years, one of her sisters had purchased for her a banana-nut muffin from Starbucks. She loved it. After I heard that she had found a treat she liked, I sent her a Starbucks card, registered it on their website and kept it charged. I wanted her to always be able to have a muffin any time she wanted.
At the Hyvee grocery store near her house, Starbucks has a kiosk just inside the front door. Over time, she fell into the habit of stopping at the kiosk at the beginning of her weekly shopping trip. She told me that if they didn’t have the banana nut mffins in the case, they would go to the back, get them and find her in the aisles and hand her a small bag with the muffins inside.
On my last trip home, I stopped by that Hyvee’s to pick up a few items for her. As I was leaving, I passed the Starbucks kiosk and thought I’d get up some muffins for my mother. When I approached the counter, I didn’t see any banana nut in the case. I asked the barista if they had any. She paused. Slowly, she said, “We have some in the freezer.” I said, “My mother comes in here all the time and gets them. I wanted to pick some up while I was here.” She visibly relaxed. “Oh,” she said, “we stock them just for her. Were you the one who was in the hospital?” Yes, I explained and gave a very brief run down of what had happened. “We were concerned about your mother when she didn’t come in for a while,” she said. (Inside, I felt awful that I had been unable to reload my mother’s Starbucks card while I was sick.) “Would you like for us to get you some muffins for her?” “Please.”
Quickly, the other barista ran to the back and brought out four, frozen banana nut muffins. She explained that my mother requests that they be individually wrapped (so she can put them in the freezer at home until she is ready to eat them). As she wrapped and bagged the muffins, I assured them that my mother was okay and that she’d be back to see them on a regular basis. They seemed genuinely pleased. I’ve now set her Starbucks card to automatically reload when it reaches a certain dollar amount. Although she usually takes two days to finish a single muffin, I want her to be able to have one any time she would like.
When I talked to her on the phone a few days ago, she expressed interest in trying a frapacino, but wanted to wait until I was there for Labor Day to give it a go. I’m trying to talk her into ordering one the next time she goes shopping. The store has a seating area up front where she could enjoy it before shopping for groceries.
Wow. My mother’s local Starbucks stocks banana nut muffins just for her. I was so impressed, when I got home, I emailed the company to relate what had just happened and to thank them for taking care of my mother. Again I say, “Thank you Starbucks!”
