A Lost Coffee Cup

If you enjoy fun stories with surprise endings, you’ll want to read this one about a coffee cup. If not, scroll on by.

When I was in my mid-thirties, I worked as a provisional employee at the headquarters of American Airlines in Ft. Worth. The job consisted of me floating from department to department, filling staffing needs as required.

I loved everything about the job, but my favorite department was Ticketing & Terminal. Not only were the employees fun, but the job itself was very interesting. We were the go-to people for ticket agents at the airports, helping them resolve issues they had at the moment, on-the-spot. It was totally cool.

One day, my Kentucky coffee cup went missing. It was part of my cup collection (from my traveling and singing days), and I was totally bummed. I might never visit Kentucky again, and I wanted my cup.

Almost daily, I inquired if anyone had seen my Kentucky cup and shared how special it was. Have you seen it? No. Have you? No. You? No. Finally, after a few weeks of dead-end streets, I abandoned the search and got on with bigger things.

AA was conducting major cutbacks during this time, and one day I was told that the company was reducing its provisional staff; my support was no longer needed. I was sad to leave, and my co-workers were sad to see me go.

On my last day, the staff surprised me with a “going away” cake in the conference room that afternoon. As the cake was being cut, I was handed a small gift bag.

“For me?” I asked, totally taken aback.

“Yes, for you.”

As I pulled out the tissue paper, my eyes got big, and my mouth popped open when I saw this cup with “Kentucky” written in bold letters across the side. “Are you kidding me? How on earth did you—”

“We called the Kentucky airport this morning, talked to an agent on the ground, told him to go to the gift shop, get a Kentucky cup and put it on the next flight out.”

It was one of the most thoughtful gifts I’ve ever received, and retelling the story is always fun. Like they say, it’s not what you know, but who you know. Indeed! Choose your people (and your jobs!) wisely!