Stories From Main Street - Bronxville, NY
This is the first installment in a new weekly series from WCBS Newsradio 880.
BRONXVILLE, NY (WCBS 880) - In Bronxville, you never know. That steaming cup of coffee might just come with a pretty good story.
LISTEN: WCBS 880's Sean Adams reports
"I'm Mike Gill. I'm a barista at Starbucks," said the man.
The man with the green apron and kindly eyes is the son of literary titan Brandan Gill.
Mike Gill, a barista at Starbucks has, himself, penned a book.
"The first book is called 'How Starbucks Saved My Life'," he told WCBS 880 reporter Sean Adams.
At 63, Gill was fired from his high-powered job in advertising. He was broke, divorced, and had a brain tumor.
He went into Starbucks for, as he puts it, "one last latte," when, by chance, a manager offered him a job. He said yes.
Gill says, "It's such a surprise to say 'This simple life of serving people on the most basic level is so much happier for me.'"
He's discovered solace in simplicity.
"It's such a relief not to have all that stuff because there is a price to having a big job, and even a big life, in the sense of going out to parties or whatever. I mean, I'll just go home and maybe I'll go for a walk. Maybe I'll have a nap. Maybe I'll do a bit of writing," says Gill.
Gill's new book, "How to Save Your Own Life," offers lessons he has learned from others during his own transformation.
