Clear as Christal

Imagine this: you’re a young dude who ends up getting a job at Bojangles in early 2016. One of the stern, but kind assistant managers who works there seems mean at first given how stern she is, but within six months, dozens of crazy coworkers and a million and one customers later, she calls you her son. I don’t have to imagine this because it actually happened. The son in the story is me and the mother is Christal Hylton, the mother who adopted me at work.

When I first started working at Bojangles I met a very colorful group of people as my coworkers. Everyone had a part to play and Christal was one of several mothers of the workplace. My first interactions with Christal was just for basic workplace necessities like having my schedule worked out and getting orders ready for the customers. The earliest impressions I had of Christal was that she was really strict and didn’t play any games. At the same time she was very soft spoken and respectful. When I started getting the hang of my job and became a pro me and Christal started interacting more aside from just our workplace duties. We started off just being very friendly to each other before eventually partaking in workplace occasions together.

Even though Bojangles was our job, we were also very festive for the occasion. Whenever one of us had a birthday or was graduating in school we would always have a workplace party for the person of the hour and Christal was always one of the main party planners. I would often lend her a helping hand in these events and it was during these times preceded by our time working together that Christal started referring to me as “son”. With me being as goofy as I am I always said that Christal’s head reminded me of one of my freshly cooked biscuits I would make at work, so I started calling her “Biscuithead”.

Christal really started to treat me as her son of the workplace. As she watched over both my good and not so good behavior when at work she didn’t just regard me in a managerial way, she watched over me as an actual mother. She always kept me focus when working and always calmed me down when I was angry or having a bad day. When I first started working at Bojangles I didn’t have a car and Christal always gave me a ride when I needed one. Eventually we started spending a lot of time together outside of work. She has two other children, Iyanna and Trevon and she always referred to them as my little brother and sister.

One of the first things people notice about Christal when they first meet her is how beautiful she is and my father was no exception. Christal also thought my dad was very handsome so they would joke around interact with each other about being my parents. Even to this day, Christal never calls me by my name, the only name she calls me by is “son”.

Whenever one of us younger coworkers graduated highschool or college Christal would always come to our graduations to support us. After we had a highschool graduation party for one of our coworkers I joked to Christal about how she always attended graduations for us and asked her if she would be at mine when I graduated college. With the most serious look on her face she nodded a yes and two years later she kept her word and showed up at my graduation when I earned my first college degree. She took off work that day and was sitting in the front row cheering me on with a smile on her face.

At one point Christal had an accident where she crushed her knee and was out on medical leave for months, but in all that time she was gone it felt like she was still right there next to me at work because she was always checking on me, especially when I was outside of work. She comforted me when she felt like something was wrong and even called me out when I was writing vulgar post on my Facebook. After growing through hard times and new heights at work Christal eventually left Bojangles. Months later I left Bojangles, yet me and Christal are still just as close as we’ve ever been. We talk all the time, I visit her a lot and she still watches over me and makes sure that I’m always around for the best of times to spend with her.

My birth mother died when I was 17 years old and I always said that there are two women in my life who she picked to watch over me when she made it to Heaven. Christal is one of those two women. She is the mother who adopted me at work, a bonus mother who will always be an important part of my life because of the unconditional love she has given me and I am forever thankful for the mother I have named Christal Hylton.

- Dedicated to the mama who adopted me from work, Christal Hylton. Love you mama Christal ❤️