Waterfall Story

Print

Emergency Response-Waterfall 14697

Based on a true story...

I remember it like it was yesterday. It was late at night and the phone rang as I was closing up in the warehouse. "Strange," I thought, "that someone would call at such a late hour." Seconds after answering the call I understood why the caller on the other line had called so late. I could hear in her voice that this was an emergency; this was not just a normal phone call.

The women who I was speaking with I had never met before, yet she needed my help. This required efficiency and speed on my part to diffuse a potentially disappointing situation. But what was I to do, I had whole night of activates planned ahead of me, it was really difficult for me when I came to the realization that the callers problem was now my first order of business.

She introduced herself, "Hello, I need another skein of Homespun Waterfall, dye lot number 14697. It's for a sweater. The birthday party is tomorrow!" I knew not at the time if the birthday party was for a grandchild or for a friend, all I knew was that a fellow knitter needed a skein of yarn to finish the project and by tomorrow it would already be too late. I took a deep breath. The birthday party is tomorrow. This was an emergency. I was all alone- everyone else had left the office and this situation was up to me to fix. To this day I don't know how I was able to keep calm, how I was able to swing into action without cracking under the pressure.

"Just a moment ma'am I will check if we have that," I heard myself saying. I didn't want to get her hopes up, what if it wasn't in stock, on the other hand I didn't want to let her down. "Please hold," my voice quivered, I hoped that she hadn't noticed. I had butterflies in my stomach as I checked for "Homespun Waterfall." Yes it was in stock. But what were the chances that it would be just the right dye lot!? I read to myself, "14697." Yes, it was the right dye lot. I began to feel myself overcome by tears, running to the phone. "We have it, yes, we have it in stock."

As I personally dropped off this skein of yarn at our new customer’s house I felt that my life had been imbibed with new meaning. I had saved the day. My proper response to the emergency call had made the difference in a knitting emergency. And some would say that it was just a ball of yarn, but we knitters know that just the right ball of yarn in the right color at the right time can make all the difference.

This is based on a true story, the name of the yarn and dye lot were changed in order to protect the identity of the skein involved in the actual incident.