I’ve been a BART Station Agent for the past fourteen years. I work the “extra board” – doing relief anywhere along the line from Bay Point to Orinda. I don’t know where I’ll be from one day to the next, or what hours I’m working. I make more money working the extra board, which is important for a single mom. I was married for thirteen years and for ten of those years I was a battered wife. At the end my husband tried to kill me. He put a loaded gun to my head, then tried to choke me. He served eight months in jail and then copped a deal and got out. The kids are now seeing him some, but he doesn’t work and doesn’t help out financially at all.
I have three kids – a boy 13, and two girls, 11 and 7. I think I have probably the three best kids in the world. My son cooks a lot and my daughters clean up. My son is so helpful, he takes my bag when I arrive home and puts it away in the closet for me. They’re really sweet, very responsible and loving kids. They’re not perfect, of course – they’re kids! A lot of times they can’t stand each other, but when the time comes they pull together.
There are a lot of challenges to being a BART station agent. We have to deal with emergencies – people falling down the escalator; people trapped in elevators; people trapped in the bathroom – that happens, the locks are old and need to be replaced! We have to deal with heart attacks, seizures, suicides. Whenever there’s a medical emergency on the trains, it’s the station agents who have to get them off the train and keep the trains running.
But I love being a station agent. I meet a lot of interesting people, which is good. I’m a people person and I like to talk with them, especially people from other countries. I like to hear different accents and learn where they’re from. When they go to the fare machines, they’re totally freaked and don’t know what to do.
I like helping people. I hate to see an angry person. I try to get people out of their bad mood. When I see an angry person I’ll try and joke with them and say, “you’re not going to make me cry, are you?” Or if it’s raining outside I’ll say, “isn’t it a beautiful, sunny day?” I love working with people. I love my job.
I’ve had a really hard life but all in all we’ve come through. Even though we have to have noodles a couple times a week, the kids don’t cry or complain. I don’t know what I’ll do if BART cuts back our salary. It will definitely make it harder. I’m paying fifty dollars a week for school lunches, then there’s money for clothes, shoes – my son is growing like crazy! It seems like I have to buy new clothes for him every week. If they take anything from me it’s really going to kill me. If I have to pay even more for my health care, that would really hurt.
