03.07.07
More Trash and the Maid
Send in more maid stories – I couldn’t even begin to make this stuff up –
My in-laws returned from a 3-week trip the other day. They are are a lovely, slightly elderly couple. My mother-in-law is a slight, cultured woman who is always immaculately dressed and coiffed. They, with the help of their maid, maintain an immaculate home.
While they were gone the maid came in to clean and water the plants. The maid is a nice, conscientious, personable girl from Poland with a reasonable command of English. Before my in-laws came back she collected the trash (paper towels & the like), walked it passed the doorman, dumped it in the garbage shute and stopped to chat with the doorman.
He, too, is a nice young man who likes to help out the tenants. He gave the maid the pile of mail that had been accumulating and they chatted a bit more. Not wanting to drop any of the numerous pieces of mail, she put it in the clean trash can (she’s Polish – they scrub the trash can each time they empty it) and walked it back to the apartment.
Needless to say, my mother-in-law neglected to check the trash before emptying it when she came back. She did, however, comment on the small amount of mail she’d received while they were gone, in the hearing of the maid. Their next activity was to go through the building trash until they found the mail with several large checks in it.
I do sort-of wonder if she still thinks I’m crazy for checking the trash after the maid comes.
