Retired teacher serves coffee and a smile

If commuters board NJ Transit trains at Little Silver's rail station with a bit of a smile on their faces in the morning, it could be due to the work of Mary Ann Ferrara.

Ferrara, a retired school teacher from Sea Bright who commuted by train daily to Hoboken, feels their pain. For the past three years, she's served up coffee, a friendly remark, trivia questions, seasonal decorations and sometimes a little therapy at Java Junction, the coffee stand she runs inside the station.

Her patrons aren't passing customers — she calls them her "commuter family" and "commuter friends." If riders here are a family, Ferrara might be their den mother.

Commuters said Ferrara's shop puts some levity in their day.

"She's a little more than cheerful, she's a very upbeat person," said commuter Rey Montalvo of the Oakhurst section of Ocean Township. "It makes the day nice."

After three years, Ferrara said, she knows her customers by name and, like a trusted bartender, by the kind of coffee or tea they drink.

"You need to be pleasant, have good coffee and you have to be quick," said Ferrara, who opened her shop after successfully bidding for the concession from the borough.

No one has ever missed a train on account of her, said Ferrara, who's even managed to get a cup to a conductor or two.

Among her favorite things is planning activities to break up the daily routine for riders.

"We have a lot of fun. We celebrate the holidays. On Mardi Gras, I gave out beads. For St. Patrick's Day, we had Irish soda bread," she said. "We have an egg hunt on Easter, and we play the dreidel game on Hanukkah. There isn't a holiday we're not willing to celebrate."

She even honored one rider's a request to observe St. David's Day, in honor of the patron saint of Wales on March 1. Music and movie trivia is another activity she holds and a CD is usually playing.

"The summer solstice, the winter solstice, anything to make a commuter's day easier," Ferrara said. "People at 5 a.m. need a little levity. We serve coffee and context."

Adelaide Sousa of Newark is a reverse commuter, who arrives in Little Silver for work as most residents are traveling northbound on the train. Ferrara asks her if she's doing the cooking for Thanksgiving as she serves her coffee.

Sousa said the station has improved since Ferrara opened her shop.

"The atmosphere brightens the day; it's a nice place," Sousa said.

Perhaps the biggest service Ferrara performs, besides serving coffee, is listening. Ferrara shares everything in their world, from why the train was delayed to births, weddings or that song they haven't heard since they were a kid.

"We'll talk through their illnesses, marriages, births of children," she said.

One commuter's daughter was getting married, and he was learning dance steps in the spring, in preparation, she recalled.

"It was like "Dancing with the Stars.' He thought it was going to be a fox trot and it turned out it was a rumba, " Ferrara said.

Many of her customers have been riding the same train for years and know each other and the train crews, she said.

"The commuters in Little Silver look out for one another," Ferrara said.

That aspect includes food and clothing drives she's held and a March Madness basketball contest, where the proceeds are donated to charity.

When applications to renew parking permits at the station were scheduled to be handed out this fall, Ferrara worked with the borough parking coordinator to have the forms available at the train station, so commuters didn't have to go to borough hall.

A table across from Java Junction contains flyers and community newsletters, including the fire company newsletter that Les Mathis of Little Silver stopped in to drop off.

"She's a good person and she works hard," Mathis said. "We have a lot of fun. She does a beautiful job."

Ferrara's day starts at 4:30 a.m., making and serving coffee. Sometimes she's even pressed into service providing information, when the ticket agent is off duty. She told one rider where to change trains to get to Hoboken and even runs out to the platform and yells "New York" to make sure some day trippers don't miss their train.

"I've had as much enjoyment from the commuters as they've had from me," she said. "My goal is to brighten someone's day."
 

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