I cried at work tonight....

Alright, so I know this isn't the blog I was planning on following up the last one with, but this happened tonight, and I wanted to write about it tonight. I'll continue the stories with the blue dress etc on the next blog. I should also preface this by saying this is a story about a guest interaction. If you don't want to hear any guest interaction stories, I'm going to go ahead and skip this update and wait for the next. This guest interaction was also a sad one, I'm not going to lie, I cried when it happened, I've cried everytime since. I might just be a baby, but don't say I didn't warn you.

First, I need to give you some background on WDW, the Magic Kingdom, and specifically the Emporium. Obviously, WDW is a very expensive vacation so many people save up for a very long time to come, and this may be the only time that they'll ever get to come. The Magic Kingdom is very often the first and the last park guests visit, or if they aren't going to be there for multiple days, it's the only park that they visit. Not only is the Magic Kingdom the last park they visit, but the Emporium is the last place that guests go before they leave. I can't count the number of times that I've been checking out guests and found out that they are leaving the park right after they're done with me and going straight to the airport, the car to drive home, etc.

WDW has a lot of guests that are with the Make-A-Wish Foundation or Give Kids the World. Everyone knows that these organizations are for children who have faced extreme health challenges or are terminally ill. During training, we often talk about these families and the little things that we do differently for them. Obviously, every guest is special, but GKtW families or MaW get taken to the front of character interactions etc. When you are talking to one of these families, you don't ask something like, "What are you here to celebrate?" because it's often not a happy thing, so instead you would ask questions about their favorite thing they've done so far, what their favorite character is, etc. I've gotten pretty good at looking for the buttons, or if they're with a child in a wheel chair, then just asking 'safe' questions.

I'm sure you can see where this story is going. I was checking out a daughter and her mom. I didn't see any of the GKtW or MaW buttons so I don't know if they were there with them, or if they just came together. The daughter was in a wheelchair and though I'm not sure if she had heart problems, cancer, what but she was pretty obviously ill. She was somewhere between 10 & 15, which sounds like a pretty big gap, but I've learned that it's hard to judge age when a child is ill. I was talking to the mom while I was checking them out and bagging their merchandise. While I was running her card, I noticed it was a Disney Chase Visa card, and more specifically a charter member card. (They started back in 2003 I've found out from google.) If you're a Disney Chase Visa holder, and more specifically a charter member, it means you like Disney. I remarked to the mom how cool it was that they had been with us since the beginning and thanked her for coming to visit.

We paused while I was bagging their merchandise. She looked at me, and told me that she didn't want to leave the park. She said that when she left the park, she pointed to her daughter (who was luckily facing the other direction during this whole interaction) and said that it was going to be her last time, and that once they walked out, she wouldn't be walking back in again. My heart sank. I said I was sorry and gave her what I hope was a sympathetic look, and concluded her transaction. As I was giving her the receipt and her bag, she started crying and looked me in the eye and asked, "Do I have to leave?" I must have had a slightly puzzled look on my face because she responded with, "If I don't leave, then she won't die. We can just stay here forever, right? I don't want her to die." My heart just completely broke. I didn't know what to say. I had a mother in front of me, soon she was going to lose her daughter and have to say good bye. I can't even fathom that, and there's nothing I could say to make her feel better. I just apologized, pulled out our tissues from under the register, let her take as many as she needed. She got herself composed and left with her daughter. Thankfully, I had held myself together.

I turned and looked at the guy who was next to me who had heard most of the end of the conversation, and said I had to go to the back. I was barely able to make it to the back before the composure that I had on stage completely melted away and I was crying. I got to the back and was crying, so I had to tell why I was crying, which made me cry more. After the third or so person to ask me why I was crying and me telling them and starting to cry all over again/harder, I finally had a co-worker who told them to stop asking me or I wasn't going to be able to stop crying.

I know this may not sound big, and maybe you had to be there to have it touch you like it did me, but it was easily the hardest conversation I've had with a guest, and will stick with me forever.