A Lady Named Lily

51年的坚守仅仅是因为那一句话

Lilian was a young French Canadian girl who grew up in the farming community of River Canard, Ontario. At the age of 16, her father thought “Lily has had enough schooling”, and she was forced to drop out of school to contribute to the family income.

莉莉是一位在安大略省加纳德河畔（River Canard）农业社区长大的年轻的法国籍加拿大女生。在她芳龄十六时，她的父亲认为“莉莉的学业已经足够”，于是莉莉不得不被逼辍学去打工以补贴家用。

In 1992, with English as her second language and limited education and skills, the future didn’t look bright for Lily.

那是一九九二年，对于一个英语非母语，所受的教育和技能又有限的女孩来说，莉莉的未来不怎么被看好。

Her father, Eugene Bezaire, was a stern man who rarely took no for an answer and never accepted excuses. He demanded that Lily should find a job. But her limitations left her with little confidence and low self-esteem, and she didn’t know what job she could do.

莉莉的父亲——尤金•贝扎尔（Eugene Bezaire）是一个非常严厉的人，几乎不允许孩子说半个“不”字，也从不接受任何辩解。他要求莉莉去找一份工作。但因为条件有限，加上莉莉对自己没有一点自信，又很自卑，所以她不知道她能做什么样的工作。

With small hope of gaining employment, she would still ride the bus daily into the “big cities” of Windsor or Detroit. But she couldn’t muster up the courage to respond to a Help Wanted ad; she couldn’t even bring herself to knock on a door.

即使就业机会渺茫，可莉莉仍然每天搭公车到温泽（Windsor）或是底特律（Detroit）那样的“大城市”去。但是她无法鼓起勇气去应聘广告上的那个职位，甚至连敲门的信心都没有。

Each day she would just ride to the city, walk aimlessly about and return home at dusk. Her father would ask, “Any luck today, Lily?” “No… no luck today, Dad,” she would respond meekly.

她就这样每天乘车到市里，在大街上漫无目的地闲逛，逛到傍晚时再乘车回家。父亲总是问：“今天运气如何，莉莉？”“今天运气不…不好，爸爸。”她温顺地答道。

On one of her trips, Lily saw a sign at the Carhartt Overall Company in downtown Detroit. “Help Wanted,” the sign said, “Secretarial. Apply Within.” She walked up the long flight of stairs to the Carhartt Company offices. Cautiously, Lily knocked on her very first door.

这天，在底特律市中心的卡哈特（Carhartt）服装公司，莉莉看到这样一则招聘告示：“文秘招聘，应聘者请进。” 莉莉踏上了通往卡哈特公司办公室的长楼梯，生平第一次，她小心翼翼地敲响了一扇陌生的门。

She was met by the office manager, Margaret Costello. In her broken English, Lily told her she was interested in the secretarial position, falsely stating that she was 19. Margaret knew something wasn’t right, but decided to give the girl a chance.

接待她的是办公室经理玛格丽特•科斯特洛（Margaret Costello）。莉莉用结结巴巴的英语说她对那个秘书职位很感兴趣，并谎称自己已经十九岁了。玛格丽特知道她说的不全是真话，但还是决定给这个姑娘一次机会。

She guided Lily through the old business office of the Carhartt Company. With rows and rows of people seated at rows and rows of typewriters and adding machines, Lily felt as if a hundred pairs of eyes were staring at her. With her chin on her chest and her eyes staring down, the reluctant farm girl followed Margaret to the back of the somber room.

她带莉莉穿过公司的那间陈旧的办公室，里面有一排排的人，坐在一排排的打字机、计算机前面，莉莉觉得仿佛有一百双眼睛正盯着自己。这个乡下女孩害羞得下巴都抵到了胸前，两眼盯着地面，不情愿地跟着玛格丽特来到那间昏暗的办公室后排。

◈  On her first try, she got through one line. It had five words, and she made four mistakes. She pulled the paper out and threw it away. The clock read 11:45. At noon, she said to herself, “I’ll move out with the crowd, and they will never see me again.”

第一次，她打了一行，五个单词，打错了四个。她把那张纸抽出来扔掉。时钟指向11:45。到了中午，她自言自语道：“我要跟这些人一起出去，然后他们再也不会见到我了。”

◈  On her second attempt, Lily got through a full paragraph, but still made many mistakes. Again she pulled out the paper, threw it out and started over. This time she completed the letter, but her work was still strewn with errors. She looked at the clock: 11:55 – five minutes to freedom. 

第二次，她打了一段，但还是错了很多。她又把那张纸抽出来扔掉，然后重新开始。这次她把信打完了，可还是满篇错误。她看看钟：11:55，再过五分钟就解放了。

Just then, the door at one end of the office opened and Margaret walked in. She came directly over to Lily, putting one hand on the desk and the other on the girl’s shoulder. She read the letter and paused. Then she said, “Lily, you’re doing good work!”

这时办公室另一端的门开了，玛格丽特走了进来。她径直走到莉莉跟前，一只手放在桌上，另一只手放在莉莉的肩上，读着那封信，然后停下来对莉莉说：莉莉，你做得很棒！

Lily was stunned. She looked at the letter, then up at Margaret. With those simple words of encouragement, her desire to escape vanished and her confidence began to grow. She thought, “Well, if she thinks it’s good, then it must be good. I think I’ll stay!”

莉莉几乎不相信自己的耳朵。她看看信，又抬头看看玛格丽特。正是这么简短的一句鼓励话打消了莉莉逃跑退缩的念头，让她鼓起了信心。她想：“她觉得我做得很棒，那么我一定是真的做得很棒。我想我会被留下的。”

Lily did stay at Carhartt Overall Company for 51 years, through two world wars and the Great Depression, through presidents and six prime ministers.

莉莉确实在卡哈特留下来了，一待就是五十一年，期间经历了两次世界大战和一次经济大萧条，经历了数届总统和首相。

Have you ever had experience in life like Lily? I guess different people have different stories behind. Sometimes, in life we need to overcome our fear inside to realize something we called “dreams” or other “to-do list”. However, a lot of people don’t follow their dreams because they tell themselves “I can’t do it! Nobody would understand.”  What I would like to share with them is that nothing’s changed unless you make it change! So have faith in yourself, you are going to make it!

你有过和莉莉一样的人生经历吗？我想不同的人有不同的故事。在生活中的有些时候，我们需要克服自己内心的恐惧去实现一些我们称作“梦想”或是“预备清单”上的事情。不过，大多数人都不会跟随自己的梦想，因为他们告诉自己“我办不到，没人会理解。” 但我想要告诉你们的是：除非你让它改变，否则任何事都不会被改变。所以要对自己有信心，你可以办到的！