A Lady Named Lill

Lillian was a young French Canadian girl who grew up in the farming community of River Canard, Ontario. At the age of 16, her father thought "Lill has had enough schooling,"and she was forced to drop out of school to contribute to the family income. In 1922, with English as her second language and limited education and skills, the future didn’t look bright for Lill.

Her father, Eugene Bezaire, was a stern man who rarely took no for an answer and never accepted excuses. He demanded that Lill find a job. But her limitations left her with little confidence and low self-esteem, and she didn’t know what work she could do.

With small hope of gaining employment, she would still ride the bus daily into the "big cities"of Windsor or Detroit. But she couldn’t muster the courage to respond to a Help Wanted ad; she couldn’t even bring herself to knock on a door. Each day she would just ride to the city, walk aimlessly about and at dusk return home. Her father would ask, "Any luck today, Lill?" "No no luck today, Dad,"she would respond meekly.

As the days passed, Lill continued to ride and her father continued to ask about her job-hunting. The questions became more demanding, and Lill knew she would soon have to knock on a door.

On one of her trips, Lill saw a sign at the Carhartt Overall Company in downtown Detroit. "Help Wanted,"the sign said, "Secretarial. Apply Within."She walked up the long flight of stairs to the Carhartt Company offices. Cautiously, Lill knocked on her very first door. She was met by the office manager, Margaret Costello. In her broken English, Lill told her she was interested in the secretarial position, falsely stating that she was 19. Margaret knew something wasn’t right, but decided to give the girl a chance. She guided Lill through the old business office of the Carhartt Company. With rows and rows of people seated at rows and rows of typewriters and adding machines, Lill felt as if a hundred pairs of eyes were staring at her. With her chin on her chest and her eyes staring down, the reluctant farm girl followed Margaret to the back of the somber room.

Margaret sat her down at a typewriter and said, "Lill, let’s see how good you really are."She directed Lill to type a single letter, and then left. Lill looked at the clock and saw that it was 11:40 a.m. Everyone would be leaving for lunch at noon. She figured that she could slip away in the crowd then. But she knew she should at least attempt the letter.

On her first try, she got through one line.It had five words, and she made four mistakes. She pulled the paper out and threw it away. The clock now read 11:45. "At noon,"she said to herself, "I’ll move out with the crowd, and they will never see me again."

On her second attempt, Lill got through a full paragraph, but still made many mistakes. Again she pulled out the paper, threw it out and started over. This time she completed the letter, but her work was still strewn with errors. She looked at the clock: 11:55 — five minutes to freedom.

Just then, the door at one end of the office opened and Margaret walked in. She came directly over to Lill, putting one hand on the desk and the other on the girl’s shoulder. She read the letter and paused. Then she said, "Lill, you’re doing good work!"

Lill was stunned. She looked at the letter, then up at Margaret. With those simple words of encouragement, her desire to escape vanished and her confidence began to grow. She thought, "Well, if she thinks it’s good, then it must be good. I think I’ll stay!"

Lill did stay at Carhartt Overall Companyfor 51 years, through two world wars and a Depression, through presidents and six prime ministers — all because someone had the insight to give a shy and uncertain young girl the gift of self-esteem when she knocked on the door.

莉蓮是個年輕的法裔加拿大女孩，在安大略省加納德河畔的農業社區中長大。16歲那年，父親認為“莉兒學得已經夠用了”，硬要她輟學掙錢，貼補家用。那是1922年，對于一個英語并非母語，而所受的教育和培訓又有限的女孩來說，莉兒的未來并不怎么看好。

她的父親尤金·貝扎爾是個非常嚴厲的人，幾乎不允許孩子說半個“不”字，也從不接受任何辯解。他要莉兒找份工作。然而，因為條件有限，莉兒沒有一點自信，她很自卑，不知道自己能干點什么。

雖然就業機會渺茫，可莉兒仍然每天搭公車到溫澤或底特律那樣的“大城市”去。但是她鼓不起勇氣去應聘那些廣告上的職位，甚至連敲門的信心都沒有。每天她就這樣乘車來到市里，在大街上漫無目的地閑逛，逛到傍晚再乘車回家。父親總是問：“今天運氣怎么樣，莉兒?”“今天運氣不……不好，爸。”她囁嚅著回答。

日子一天天過去，莉兒繼續著她的公車旅行，父親則繼續關心著她的工作。父親的問題變得越來越苛嚴，莉兒知道她必須馬上敲開一家公司的門。

這天，在底特律市中心的卡哈特服裝公司，莉兒看到這樣一則招聘告示：“招聘文秘，應聘者請進。”莉兒踏上了通往卡哈特公司辦公室的長長樓梯，生平第一次，她小心翼翼地扣響了一扇陌生的門。接待她的是辦公室經理瑪格麗特·科斯特洛。莉兒用結結巴巴的英語說對那個秘書職位很感興趣，并謊稱自己已經19歲了。瑪格麗特知道她說的不全是真話，但還是決定給這個姑娘一次機會。她帶莉兒穿過卡哈特公司那間陳舊的辦公室，里面有一排排的人，坐在一排排的打字機、計算器前面，莉兒覺得仿佛有一百雙眼睛正盯著自己。這個鄉下女孩羞得下巴抵到了胸前，兩眼盯著地面，不情愿地跟著瑪格麗特來到那間昏暗的辦公室后排。

瑪格麗特安排她坐到一臺打字機前，對她說：“莉兒，讓我們見識一下你的真本事吧。”她給了莉兒一封信讓她打出來，隨后就走了。莉兒看了看鐘，現在是上午11：40，馬上就該吃午飯了。她尋思到時就可以混在人群中溜掉，不過她覺得自己起碼應該試試那封信。

第一次，她打了一行，五個單詞，她打錯了四個。她把那張紙抽出來扔掉。時鐘指向11：45。“到了中午，”她自言自語道，“我就和這些人一起出去，然后他們再也不會見到我了。”

第二次，她打了一段，但還是錯了很多。她又把那張紙抽出來扔掉，然后重新開始。這次她把信打完了，可還是滿篇錯誤。她看看鐘：11：55，再過五分鐘就解放了。

這時辦公室另一端的門開了，瑪格麗特走了進來。她徑直走到莉兒跟前，一只手放在桌上，另一只手放在莉兒的肩上，讀著那封信，然后停下來對莉兒說：“莉兒，你做得很棒!”

莉兒幾乎不相信自己的耳朵。她看看信，又抬頭看看瑪格麗特。正是這么簡短的一句鼓勵話打消了莉兒逃跑退縮的念頭，讓她鼓起了信心。她想：“她覺得我做得很棒，那么我一定是真的做得很棒。我想我會被留下的。”

莉兒確實留了下來，而且一待就是51年，其間經歷了兩次世界大戰和一次經濟大蕭條，歷經了數屆總統和首相。而她之所以能做到這一切，完全是因為曾有一個人在當初那個羞怯的小女孩敲門的一刻給了她自尊自信。