Music is the "universal" language

I am just returning from a full day and a fun night, but just had to write and share my adventures.

This morning I gave a talk on grief and loss to a sociology class led by my good friend, Janet Johnson. To thank me for my time, Janet took us to lunch at a wonderful Thai restaurant. While the food was terrific, the place was empty, so we had a leisurely lunch and chatted about all sorts of things.

The Musak was playing the "oldies but goodies" of my parent's generation and I noted the first strains of Danny Boy, telling Janet that it had been my dad's favorite song. I then shared that Moon River had been my mom's.

Then I started telling Janet various love stories of my youth: Alfred, the hotel clerk in Bermuda, that I admired from afar until he finally asked me to dance after dinner, and Peter, the tour guide on the New England bus tour that gave me wonderful attention-especially because I was the only tour attendee under the age of 60!

As we laughed over love and spring rolls, my ears heard the beginning notes of Moon River! I immediately teared up as Janet noted, "Wow, you got to hear from both of your parents within minutes of each other! And after today's topic, that's just perfect."

And it was. And I am grateful. I still love you, mom and dad! All is well.

Who Tells You Where to Go?

I was saddened to read a new friend's blog about her poor experience with her local funeral home, after the passing of her mother.

She shared that when she and her family arrived for the service, a number of details had not been taken care of (including the fact that no one had contacted the minister!) and that the family was left standing unattended because no one from the funeral home gave them an agenda of the service nor told them what to do when or where to go.

In my opinion, this is unacceptable service from a funeral home. It's an unacceptable response from any business, for that matter. But especially during an emotional time such as a death.

I encourage each of you who have a business to consider the systems you have in place for customer service. And I beg you to put those steps on paper and share them with each member of your team in regular staff meetings. Things would have been a lot smoother for my friend's family and guests, if someone in authority at the host site would have taken the time to do that.

And doing so will let you easily tell your customers where to go-politely and efficiently.