Recently, my mother-in-law had a major change in attitude. Over the last eleven years, she hasn’t visited us or spoken with me or my husband due to her religious zealot, hate-all attitude. So, it was a surprise when my father-in-law told us they were both coming for Christmas and [Mother-In-Law] had a surprise for me.

Their plane landed, and I was waiting for them in the bag pickup lounge. As soon as [Mother-In-Law] saw me, she made this happy squeak and hugged me.

Mother-In-Law: “Just look at you. You look gorgeous! By the way, where’s the ladies’ room?”

I told her and waited for her to exit the lounge, and I asked [Father-In-Law] what had just happened.

Father-In-Law: “She had a near-death experience. She got mugged and went to the hospital with a cracked skull.”

Me: “Oh, my God! Is she okay? Did they catch the guy?”

Father-In-Law: *Laughing* “No guy. Let me explain. She was stocking shelves at work, and they have these breakfast mugs that are more like big bowls with handles. She was kneeling and tripped when getting up, hitting the shelf with her shoulder, and four mugs fell on her head, knocking her out.”

Me: *Shocked* “So, she’s nice because of that?”

Father-In-Law: “She says Jesus spoke with her and told her to stop hating — that unless she changed her ways, she was going to Hell. Thus, she started volunteering at a soup kitchen and put her name up for housing kids who were kicked out by their parents for being gay. We’ll have our first kid in January.”

My husband, our oldest, and I are still a bit shocked at the change. [Mother-In-Law] made heart-shaped waffles for dinner, played with the triplets, and even bought the cutest clothes for the baby. 

Let’s hope this change is permanent.

The company I work for has tried to do various fun activities for the employees over the years. Some have worked better than others. Several years ago, they decided to do an Easter egg hunt in the parking lot. Our parking lot is a large rectangle with plenty of landscaping to hide eggs. The eggs could contain candy, one- or five-dollar bills, or gift cards to nearby stores.

They had us all in the middle of the parking lot. We were told there were no eggs on or under anyone’s cars so not to bother looking there. Then, they told us to go, and everyone took off, running and sometimes screaming in excitement. Not being particularly athletically inclined, I decided to simply stroll around and see what I could find without getting too worked up about it.

I headed toward one end of the parking lot and spotted a pink egg under a large bush with big pink flowers. Several people ran past me and past the bush, but none of them noticed it before I reached it. I was pleased that I’d found at least one. Looking around again, I spotted a green egg under a leafy, green bush. I walked over calmly and retrieved it, as well. Again, several people ran by me before I reached it and none of them noticed.

In the end, as I walked all the way around the lot, I ended up with four eggs and some people had none. The admin people were counting them all up and announced that they had all been found. Some people congratulated me, but a few people glared at me and muttered that there should be a limit to how many anyone was allowed to take. I just ignored them. If there was a limit, I would have obeyed it, but there wasn’t one. I ended up with a handful of candy, six dollars, and a gift card to a restaurant down the street.

The next year, they changed it. They hid eggs around the building in the non-work areas, but the signs said specifically to only take one per person as they wanted to make sure there were enough for all three shifts. Also, there was only candy in these eggs. I got my one egg and was perfectly fine, but I heard that some people never got theirs because people were ignoring the signs and taking more than one.

I worked in a hotel that was at the budget end of the market. It was within easy travelling distance of a popular theme park, and we sold packages that included tickets to the park. A lot of these were through agents or third-party websites, pre-paid to the agent.

A guest on one such package came to reception one morning with a minor but legitimate complaint about her room, looking like she was geared up for a fight. I apologised and told her what I’d do to put it right. This seemed to take the wind out of her sails a bit, so she paused, and then she seemed to think of something else to complain about.

Guest: “We’re not happy about the bus to [Theme Park]! The website said it ran from outside the hotel, and we thought it was included.”

Me: “I’m sorry, but the bus isn’t affiliated with us in any way. It does run from the stop opposite the hotel, but it’s just a regular bus service. You booked and paid through [Agent Website]; if you feel their website is misleading, you do need to raise it with them.”

Having failed to get the response she apparently wanted, she started to walk away. Then, she suddenly turned and shouted:

Guest: “And nobody told me it was Easter!”

I must have looked confused as she followed it with:

Guest: “I’ve probably paid more!”

Luckily, she stormed off before I had to explain to her again that we’d had no part in her booking process, that she’d selected her own chosen dates online through an agent, and that she’d booked a room including her school-aged children… who would have been on Easter break at the time.

Many years ago, I worked at a now-defunct big box store. We hired a new employee to work at the service desk. She took every opportunity to tell us that she was a struggling single mother of a young daughter.

It was around Easter time, and the plastic fillable eggs were quite skilled at escaping their packages and rolling all over the store; any damaged items were brought to the service desk to be written off and disposed of. The new hire asks the manager:

New Hire: “Could I have the plastic eggs that fall from the packaging? I can’t afford anything for my daughter’s Easter basket, being a struggling single mother and all.”

Manager: *Taking pity on her.* “Yes, of course.”

So, for a week or so, she dutifully collected all of the plastic eggs and took them home.

That same week, we noticed that the registers at the service desk were coming up short – hundreds of dollars every day. Loss prevention watched the security tapes:

The new hire was pulling bills out of the register and putting them in the plastic eggs, then walking out with the bag of eggs at the end of her shift! She made off with thousands of dollars.

She was fired and had charges for embezzlement pressed, despite the whole struggling single mom thing.

It’s a day or two before Easter. I’m manning the self-checkout when a woman signals me over to help. She hasn’t got much in her cart, so I decide to scan everything for her, but as I scan, she wants to talk about WHY she’s buying them (which I don’t mind).

She points to a large flower pot and holds up a plate that would typically go under it.

Customer: “I’m doing a display for my church this year, about Jesus rising from His tomb.

She rolls the plate back and forth in front of the pot to show off.

Me: “Oh, wow, that’s a great idea! I’m not much of a church person, but I bet your church is gonna love it.”

She smiles proudly and then hands me a small concrete square that I recognize as a damaged piece of what’s supposed to be a rectangle.

Customer: “And this is going to be the bed he lay on. I was wondering, since it’s damaged, could I get it for free?”

Me: *Shaking my head* “I’m sorry, ma’am, but I can only discount it, not give it away.”

Customer: *A bit rude, a bit disbelieving* “…It’s for Easter.”

Me: “I know, ma’am, but I’m afraid a discount is the best I can do.”

She left without buying anything. I canceled the sale, rolled her cart to the side to sit with other left-behind items, and resumed my watch over the area.