Butterfly Bob

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I really need to move my scrapbooking supplies if I actually want to use them for scrapbooking. They are much too accessible to Esmé in their spot in our craft room.

But I digress. Recently Esmé was going through it all and became enamored by a butterfly sticker. I’d forgotten all about it, but it brings back some good memories.

I was being admitted for Esmé’s delivery when Butterfly Bob pitched up in my hospital room. He came with all the vampire paraphernalia of a typical phlebotomist. Friendly without being annoyingly cheerful, he went about his task of drawing my blood. As he was leaving, he handed me this beautiful sticker. On the backside was stamped, “You’ve been kissed by a butterfly.”

Don’t you love the imagery? Not stabbed by a needle, but kissed by a butterfly.

If you like making people happy in your job, phlebotomy would be one of the last occupations I’d recommend. Yet Butterfly Bob has found a way to bring smiles in what can be stressful, pain-filled situations.

In Mozambique, cash is the main method of doing business, and I require employees to turn in a LOT of petty cash reports. Every time people complain about how painful it is to create those reports and reconcile their petty cash accounts, I feel like responding, “Try my shoes on and see how painful it is to work with the sometimes illegible, poorly-detailed reports and receipts that get turned in. At least YOU were there when the money was spent and have an idea of what it was for. I have to guess half of the time.”

I wonder if there is some way I can make butterfly kisses out of petty cash reports. Hmmm . . .

No, I didn’t save the sticker for scrapbooking. It was meant to be enjoyed. And I’ve got my memories, not just of that hospital event, but also of Esmé smiling with her butterfly.