In March of 2014, I went and found the contact information for the Hospitality Manager at Minneapolis-St. Paul airport and sent him the note (shown below) after an experience I had with a late night sandwich maker. Her nametag just said “Nigisti”.
Mr. Butch Howard, HMSHost Sr. Director of Operations, Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area
I have traveled for 8-15 days a month for 25 years in my work. I can’t say I remember many of my airport meals during those travels, unless one really stands out as awful, and that certainly happens. Every once in awhile, though, you meet someone on the serving side who really does a fantastic job of connecting as a person to the stranger standing in front of them. You have one of those people working in the Quizno’s in Minneapolis, MN. I made a note to myself to let you know, and I almost forgot to send you the note, but I certainly have not forgotten the experience.
On February 28th, I had the good fortune to meet a woman named Nigisti who works there. It was very slow when I came through pretty late that evening, and I got chatting a little with her. I learned that she was originally from an area not far from a place [in eastern Africa] that I will be traveling to in May, and she gave me some tips on traveling there, along with a peek inside her native culture that led to her name. I learned that she had lost her father not too long ago, just as I did a little over a year ago. I am certainly still carrying that loss, while at the same appreciating how much he did for me as I grew up, even though I’m 55 now. She seemed to sense that in me – Nigisti possesses an amazing ability to connect quickly on a very special level, and I wanted you to know that you have someone very special on your staff. She does not just make sandwiches – she touches peoples’ hearts.
Please thank her for me, and know that she does way more than make sandwiches every day at Quizno’s.
After I sent the note, Nigisti left me a voicemail that I really appreciated. In the voicemail, she thanked me for the note, and let me know that she had been singled out in front of the entire airport staff for the highest honor her company gives each year. She lifted me up that evening while making my sandwich, I thanked her, and she lifted me up again. Who benefits more? You? Or the person receiving the lift? Take time to say thanks, even to the most unlikely of people you might meet.
“How R U doing?”
She continues to send me text messages every few months just to check how I’m doing. When I wanted to chronicle our encounter to share the story and the lesson I learned, I asked her, “By chance did she still have the note that I had sent?” It had long ago been purged from my emails by our automated corporate document management system. She did have it, though, five years later. I guess I shouldn’t doubt that we can have an impact on people we meet, just as they make an impact on us.
“How R U doing?”
She recently sent me a very short text: “How R U doing?” That’s all it said. “How R U doing?” It came on my birthday. I do not share my birthday on any social media or the like. How could she have known the date? The sandwich maker who made my supper back in 2014. I answered her back, “I’m doing OK, Nigisti.” I’m doing ok. And thank you.
A Moment of Grace? Without a doubt.
Catholics have a type of service where the celebrant places the Eucharist (also often called a “host”) in a gold stand which has 
In 2019, I had the chance to finally meet Rocky Elton, a former classmate of my late uncle Darell (who also happened to be a classmate and good friend of my mother’s). My mother had referred to the fun times she had had with Rocky and Darell numerous times over the years, but I had never met him before. Rocky was also Darell’s college classmate at the University of Minnesota, and both were on the Varsity football team as freshmen in 1951, a rare feat for anyone at that time. I never met Darell – he was my dad’s younger brother, and was killed in an Air Force jet training accident three years before I was born. A tragic loss of a wonderful young man, and a loss that I believe my dad felt sad about his entire life.
Most of my angel moments have been amazingly uplifting and soul-filling. A couple others have fulfilled their purpose, but in a more humbling way.
A few years ago, I had the incredibly fortunate opportunity to “follow” one of my sons to Tanzania. He was a new young doctor in the midst of his pediatric residency, and his resident program included a 6-week rotation at the Bugando Children’s Medical Center in Mwanza, Tanzania. My wife encouraged me to follow him to Africa and join him for some time together when his rotation experience was done. He had recently married and she said, “You may never get a chance like this again to spend some time with him. He’ll be incredibly busy when he returns and so will you. Do it!”
Here’s a lesson we can all learn from a child’s point of view. Recently, we were helping for a weekend with a couple of our grandkids. Our grandson, Emerson, 5, had a pretty great thought.
I appreciate angels helping us on so many days. At the end of a trip up north, I goofed up and set my wallet and iPhone on the tonneau cover on the truck box, right behind the cab, “just for a second” as I loaded up the cab of the truck. Right. Just for a second. So we took off for home, and after a few minutes driving, my wife suddenly asked “Is that your phone ringing?” I reached around in the bins and the console and gasped, “Oh my gosh, I don’t have my phone, or my wallet!” And then I remembered putting them behind the cab, so I pulled slowly to the side of the road and went back to see if they were still there. Nope, gone. So I turned around, trailer and all, and we started driving back the way we came – we’d only gone a few miles, but we were on a busy state highway. Driving slowly, looking along the shoulder and in the road, after 3/4 of a mile I saw my wallet and jumped out. It was already emptied of credit cards and cash, and I found myself thinking, “Could someone already have grabbed it and emptied it?” and then I saw a $20 bill, and then a single, and then all my business receipts, then a credit card, then another. Spread over several hundred yards in the ditch. Then Ellen found more cash and credit cards on the other side of the road. We found every piece of paper and plastic spread over 1/4 of a mile on both sides of the road. No phone, though, so we got in and kept driving, ever so slowly, with Ellen calling my phone number with her phone, windows rolled down. I heard my ring tone and saw my phone sitting on the far shoulder. Otter case dinged a little, but otherwise perfect after doing a flying double twist, triple somersault at highway speed.