A store stocked with kindness

By Janice Podsada

Herald Writer

MILL CREEK — Angela Lisby dreaded hearing her name announced over the Safeway loudspeaker. But she didn’t flinch. Instead, Lisby kept smiling as she handed a customer his package of prawns.

She had arrived at work just 20 minutes earlier, and now her worst fear had come true.

Lisby picked up the employee phone and heard a voice say, "Angela, your car is on fire."

When she’d parked her 1983 Honda Accord in the Safeway parking lot Sunday afternoon, whiffs of smoke were coming from the engine.

"I’d jokingly said to the ladies sitting outside, ‘If my car starts to go up in flames, will you give me a call?’ " Lisby said.

Making her way to the front of the store, Lisby could see flames shooting from under the hood. In the front seat was $35, all the money she had; in the trunk a head gasket and all new hoses, ready to fix an oil leak. "I didn’t even have bus money in my pocket."

This was Lisby’s second car in two months to break down.

"When the fireman started busting out the windows, (Angela) had tears of terror," said her boss, seafood manager Dave Hicks of Lake Stevens.

New to town, new to her job, Lisby, 34, was trying to get back on her feet after recently losing her mother. Now she would have to take three buses to get from her Shoreline apartment to her new job at the Mill Creek Safeway.

But goodwill was about to spring from Angela’s ashes.

Maureen Jones of Arlington, who works in the bakery, went home that night knowing she had to do something for her co-worker.

"It bugged me all day," Jones said. "I didn’t know Angela that well. She’d only worked here two months, but she’s always got a smile on her face. The day her car burned up, she kept working with a smile on her face."

Jones called her in-laws, Larry and Pat Jones of Maltby. Larry Jones is one of those fix-it guys, Maureen said. They had a 1983 Chevy Celebrity station wagon they never used sitting in the front yard. All the silver station wagon needed was a good scrub and a red ribbon atop the hood to spruce it up.

"In order to get her in here, we called Angela at home on Monday and told her, ‘You have to come in and fill out forms for the fire department,’ " Hicks said.

When she got to the store, Lisby couldn’t understand why all of her co-workers were standing in the parking lot beaming.

"It was the same crowd that watched her car burn," Hicks said.

Nor could she understand why Maureen Jones made a point of introducing Lisby to her relatives and her husband, Rob Jones, who held a key tied with a red ribbon — a ribbon that matched the red bow on the silver station wagon parked in front of the entrance.

Rob held out the key as Lisby started to cry.

"We gave her the keys, and she started moonwalking," Hicks said.

"There was not a dry eye in the house," said Nancy Johnston, manager of the Mill Creek Safeway. "Maureen’s donating the car has spurred a lot of random acts of kindness."

Jones said, "We wanted Angela to have a Merry Christmas."

Lisby can’t say enough about the people she works with.

"They took me in like family," Lisby said. "It’s the best store; it comes from the top down. I don’t ever want to work anywhere else."

You can call Herald Writer Janice Podsada at 425-339-3029 or send e-mail to podsada@heraldnet.com.

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