Hug Somebody. It's Late.

"They Invented Hugs to let people know you love them without saying anything"
     Bill Keane

At the age of 17 I got my first makeup artistry job.  It was a position in a very small cosmetics boutique, but I remember thinking I had really made it.  I had always dreamt of being a beauty expert dressed in a fabulous little black dress with well groomed nails & perfect eyeliner. The mere thought of working my way through college while becoming a makeup artist felt like the most amazing idea EVER!

Reading everything I could possibly get my hands on, I took stacks of huge bound notebooks filled with press releases & product knowledge home each night. I wanted to be exceptionally well versed & ready for ALL cosmetic emergencies that might arise.  After a few months of sales instruction, artistry lessons & entrance exams into the "World of Beauty", Mrs. Vandemere  (my elegant boss, who at the age of 65 could have easily passed for a woman of 40) decided I was finally ready for my first day on the floor.

My first client appointment was a lovely lady with perfectly styled Jackie O dark hair.  Her taste seemed impeccable & as I approached her I complimented the camel toned wool coat she wore while asking her to have a seat in the beauty instruction chair.  Thinking back now about a teenager explaining wrinkle potions & eye creams to a woman in her 50's?  Well, it makes me giggle. It had  to be tough to take me seriously, but she was polite & kind & seemed to be content listening to my every word.  As I swept a huge powder brush across her face with the final touches of her custom look (just as instructed) I lifted a hand mirror for approval.  Just then a tear began to fall down her cheek & then another & another & yet another until a full on cry began.  I was shocked, stunned & paralyzed with fear.

 "Oh no. Oh no OH NO!  It's all wrong isn't it? Too much foundation?  Do you hate the lipstick? I'm so SORRY!" I went on & on, feeling an already nervous stomach beginning to become nauseous. I wanted to run.  S T R A I G H T out of the front door. I wanted to vanish into thin air & never return.
  "No, no", she replied. "It's this song."
 "What?  A SONG?  What song? There's a SONG?"  This was my very first client & I had been entirely too nervous to even remember my name let alone the fact that there was actual music playing within the store.  Just then, I tuned in.  I turned my ears on & I heard the Beatles

 "Yesterday,
all my troubles seemed
so far away"

 "It's this song, she continued, it was my husband's favorite. I can still see him standing in the kitchen every morning, singing it to me while we would eat breakfast together. He recently passed away. We were married for 25 years. He was my best friend & I miss him."

 I froze solid in my tracks.  This beauty emergency was definitely NOT in the beauty guidebook. Where was this sales technique strategy outlined? What were those positive informative sales terms from chapter 5 for this?   I'm sure I had little know how to handle such a situation at that age, but also LESS knowledge of handling it in a work setting while holding a tube of Tulip Pink lipstick in one hand & a powder brush in the other..

  "I'm so sorry.  Do you want me to turn it off?" I nervously muttered with a lump in my throat the size of Mount McKinley & a few tears of my own welling up inside.  "No!" she snapped back, as a smile began to form, "I think it's a sign!  You see,  I haven't left the house in months & today I made this appointment to somehow feel better again, to feel pretty again.  I had to force myself back out into the world.  I think hearing that song..  here, today is a beautiful sign."

 I could feel myself beginning to breath again as we both started to laugh a little.  "I love it!" she said.  "I'll take everything!"  
As I gathered her products she began telling me sweet stories about their last vacation & the way he loved the scent of vanilla candles & how he made cinnamon toast better than anyone she had ever met AND how he would have loved that Tulip Pink lipstick :)

I never saw her again, but I think of her every single time I hear that timelessly beautiful song &
 it makes me Smile.
Hug Somebody.  It's Late.

Hepburn Hugs & Ric Ocasek Dreams

xo

Birdee Bow