Dear Janitor,

When I was a kid, my parents worked a bunch. We were still living in Hong Kong at the time. Mom taught at a private school and dad was a technician for a local telephone company. They were busy and my sister and I were often the last ones to get picked up from school. I remember getting to know the cleaning crew who could be heard vacuuming, emptying the trash, scrubbing. They were friendly and hard workers, like my parents.

Fast forward a few decades. I’m at my first job out of grad school and I was often the last to leave. I got to befriend the janitors there. Hector was Filipino and John white. When John had a birthday, Hector and I sang him Happy Birthday. Eventually, John moved onto a different job. As did I, but it was hard to say goodbye to Hector.

Now as a business owner, I still find myself leaving late. While I’ve gotten better at it, I do sometimes stay until the cleaning crew arrives. I love saying hi and bye to them because they’re hard workers and their jobs are very important. When they listen to music in their own language while they work, I feel right at home. They keep our offices very clean and they go above and beyond to vacuum our couches!

I can’t appreciate them enough.

I can’t appreciate you enough.

You empty our hospital’s garbage, now containing infectious materials. You take extra care to scrub down every surface and disinfect door knobs, light switches, every nook and cranny to keep us safe, even if that means more work during each shift. During this health pandemic, you wonder if you might get infected and in turn get your family sick. Yet, you still show up; to provide for your family; to help the rest of us.

You do your job well so we can do ours. For that, I can’t thank you enough.

I hope you go home healthy to your family.

Warmly,
Ada