Mike DeMeo and Clarice Brewer

“I spend more time with Clarice than I do with my own family.”

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Veteran Grand Central Terminal ticket clerk Mike DeMeo to his colleague Clarice Brewer.

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Recorded in New York, NY.

Mike DeMeo and Clarice Brewer

Interview transcript

Attoe: We were having breakfast at Friendly’s, and this young couple came in with an autistic child, and the child was overwhelmed with the noise and the environment, the light was bothering him, the sound, he was screaming and I was very nervous that my husband was going to snap at them, or ask them to remove the child. He’s a sweet man but he can also be very impatient and short. What surprised me and delighted me was I looked over and he was crying and I said to him, Why are you crying? and he said I just I don’t know what I can do for them. And he bought them breakfast. And I was I thought, I don’t know this side of him, ya know he walked out and he gave the Maitre D twenty bucks and he said Buy them breakfast. And I had never seen that sensitive side to him so it was a beautiful surprise.

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