Without going into too much detail about who I am or where exactly I work, I got to see a woman in tears yesterday on the job. She was a thirty-something Hispanic woman, driving along the interstate. Long story short, she had committed a minor violation and stopped and knocked on the door of the station office where I was having my supper break.

She was in tears, nervous that she was going to be heavily fined or arrested for something pretty trivial. Her eyes were red and wet, just beginning to run with tears.

Her voice was cracking and choked as she tried to explain her side of the story with struggling coherence.

"Miss, please try to relax. Are you okay?"

"No, I'm not okay, this happened and then..." she was struggling to explain, her voice getting higher pitched, her eyes tearing up more and her jaw beginning to hang open, giving her that slack rictus that some women get when they cry.

"Okay, miss. You need to go speak to the woman in there. She can get this arranged for you."

"But they're going to make me pay so much, and I can't afford it and I'm going to be in trouble..." she said, beginning to break down. "What if I do such and such...?"

"No, do not do that. That would get you in more trouble. I assure you we have no interest in bringing the hammer down on you for this. You need to speak to my colleague in there. She'll handle this and we can all have it resolved in a few minutes."

The woman was whimpering and sniffling and beginning to make little hiccup noises.

"Would it make you feel more comfortable if I spoke to her first?"

She nodded yes through tears and I went to explain the situation to my coworker, about how the woman was nervous that we were going to pillory her, etc. I went back and spoke to the crying woman.

"It's all arranged. You just need to go speak to the woman in there. You'll only have to pay this much, and once you do we'll be all square, etc."

She looked at me with a very sincere smile of relief, and said, while still crying, "thank you so much. God bless you."

I was glad to get her straightened out, but part of me, of course, wished that I could see her cry more.