Thursday, July 28, 2022
Our hearts at Northline Minimart are completely broken over the loss of Justin. I met Justin a little over 3 years ago. He definitely had a sense of humor and a smile that would brighten anyone's day! I personally called him my "coin man". He would drive thru the store, ask for his dasani water and chocolate milk and always gave me the nastiest looking bills or coin that he received from someplace else. One day he handed me a painted orange quarter and sped away. That was the the day I thought, game on with the nasty money! The next morning he came through the store to get his usual on his way to work and I handed him the quarter back with the rest of his money and I will never forget how hard he laughed! From that day forward I instructed all of my employees to make sure Justin got sticky, dirty, bills and coin when purchasing his products daily! It was a daily game that we all played with him until one day I noticed he hadn't been at the store. I asked my employees if they had seen him, they all said no. A few more days went by and I had the honor of meeting his mother. She came to get chocolate milk for him while he was in the hospital and informed me on his status. I gave her the milk, and I grabbed a dasani water and some of the nastiest coins I had in the store and asked her to tell him it was from me! She didn't know the game that was played with the coins but Justin knew! A couple days later I had another honor of meeting his beautiful sister, whom by the way tried to pass the nasty looking coins back! I just laughed and said, you give them right back to your brother! As I sit here and think about it now, I sorta wished I would have kept the coins in memory of our little game. However, we at Northline Minimart not only have the memories of Justin, we also display his photos proudly in the store! We look at him in the morning while opening (back in the safe area) as well as when we are ringing customers up by the register! So, we may no see him come through with his grin, smile, and nasty coins, but, we definitely see him on our boards and smile right back at him every single day!! RIP Justin...We all miss you dearly, especially me. Until we meet again my coin man...
