Swiping into students' hearts

By Marisa Kendall Christine Hamlett-Williams loves her job as a Terrace Dining Room cashier at American University’s student dining hall, but not because of the free food. Known by AU students as “Ms. Christine,” she rolls her eyes when asked about TDR’s mass-produced cuisine. Wearing the maroon shirt that constitutes the TDR uniform and sitting at a long table among a cafeteria full of noisy students, Ms. Christine admitted that the dining hall’s food was not her favorite. After growing up in North Carolina, Ms. Christine said she would like to see TDR serve more of what she described as the “stuff that’ll kill me.” Picking at a bowl of salad that sits on a plastic tray, she lists her ideal food choices as fried chicken, fried fish, ribs and potato salad. Ms. Christine had been at AU since 1981, working at both the University Club, the faculty dining room, and the Market Place, a fast food area, before landing in her favorite location: TDR. She swipes students’ ID cards as they enter the dining hall from 7 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, and she looks forward to interacting with the students every day. “I love my students,” Ms. Christine said. “Some days I don’t feel like coming to work, but I think about once I come to work and I start talking to the students. I look at them and they laugh, and we laugh, and I pick their day up. It makes me feel better.” This sense of compassion that she tries to show others developed after going through several emotionally difficult years, Ms. Christine said. Her husband, Robert Williams, died suddenly of a heart attack in June of 2002. “He was a wonderful man,” she said. “His life was cut too short.” The death of her husband caused Ms. Christine to experience severe health problems that put her on the verge of a nervous breakdown, she said. “I went through a grieving period that weren’t so good,” she said. “I mean, I didn’t have a nervous breakdown, but I was close to it.” Williams played bass guitar in several different bands and was in Newport News, Va., performing at a family reunion the evening he died, Ms. Christine said. She received a call from him before he went on stage and the next call notified her that he had passed out, she said. Her first thought was that it was from the heat, but a later call from the hospital broke the news that Williams had died. “When they said ‘expired’ I’m trying to understand, because I knew, but I didn’t want to receive it,” Ms. Christine said. Ms. Christine had been married to Williams for four years, but they had been together for over 15 years. He was her second husband, and for the sake of her three children, she had wanted to be sure about their relationship before remarrying. Ms. Christine described her first marriage at 20 as “young love.” “I think those early years helped me learn how to be who I am now,” she said. Ms. Christine’s three children from her first marriage all stayed close to her home in Temple Hills, Md., near Anacostia. Her daughter, Alice, 32, works at a day care center while taking classes at the University of Maryland, and her youngest son, 35-year-old David, is an artist, Ms. Christine said. Ms. Christine’s oldest son, Gary, is 40 and has been on dialysis for the past 15 years. He was born with a deformed kidney, which gradually worsened as he grew up, she said. “It’s been like a rollercoaster,” Ms. Christine said, “up and down, in the hospital, out of the hospital.” She finds comfort in prayer and in spending weekends watching movies with her two granddaughters, Brittany, 6, and 15-year-old Crystal, she said. Ms. Christine is very close with her grandchildren, and she began to get tears in her eyes upon describing one particular weekend spent with them. Brittany was visiting Ms. Christine one day when the six-year-old witnessed a beam of sunlight break through the clouds and go straight into a window of the house. Brittany attributed the light to God and told her grandmother that God was “awesome,” Ms. Christine said. The moment warmed her heart, she said. Ms. Christine also enjoys flower arranging in her free time. Ms. Christine used to sell her arrangements, but now mostly makes them as gifts to cheer up friends who are not feeling well, she said. The most important thing Ms. Christine has taken from her years at AU is an understanding of and compassion for people of all races, all of attitudes and from all over the world, she said. “It helped me to understand people,” Ms. Christine said. Ms. Christine also dispelled rumors that she is the “Sassy Chef” who writes replies to the comment cards students leave on TDR’s bulletin board. She said she thinks they are written by different staff members, including the Executive Chef Marry Soto. Marien Richardson, a sophomore in the School of Communication, said she appreciates seeing Ms. Christine’s upbeat attitude on a daily basis. “She’s really nice,” Richardson said. “She remembers me every time I come down, and she will ask you how your day is and everything.” Kristin Garrity, a sophomore in the School of International Service, said Ms. Christine says “Hi” to her whenever she swipes into TDR. “I would describe her as always smiling and always very nice, very cheerful,” Garrity said. “She’s a very nice lady.” ###