Not only did I forget my cell phone the morning I had a newspaper stringer interview at Chik Fil A, I also failed to write down the gentleman’s name that I was supposed to interview. I knew the focus of my article – interview an 80-year-old community member who served as a chaplain for a large car dealership in the area.

Eighty-years-old and he meets participating employees every morning at 7:00 AM to share a devotion and prayertime, and I get so frazzled explaining schoolwork to my homeschooled teenagers that I dart out of the house without a phone and interview details.

I walked into the fast-food restaurant across the street from the mall shortly before nine and glanced around.

Oh, thank you, God, there’s only one customer here. That’s got to be him.

Already mentally rattled, I didn’t think through my first question. I approached his table and asked, “Are you here to meet someone?”  

The senior gentleman looked up at me, raised his eyebrows, pushed back from the table, put both hands up in the air in surrender-posture and exclaimed, “I’m not here to meet anyone!”

It was at that very moment that a gray-haired man stood up on the opposite side of the restaurant, from behind the partition that had previously blocked my view of him, and waved to me.

Sheepishly, I apologized for the confusion and walked over to meet Mr. Lingle.

And I have NEVER forgotten an interview subject’s name again.

365 Ways to Love

Journalist and author Julie Lavender is fascinated with others’ stories and has written about them in over 900 newspaper articles and a number of Guideposts Magazine articles, too. She is excited that her parenting book, 365 Ways to Love Your Child: Turning Little Moments into Lasting Memories, published by Revell, releases in October. Connect with Julie on social media, and she promises to remember your name!