A Daughter and Child were with me today for lunch. We had walked in the chilled, noon time air to an establishment I wasn’t really planning on going to. But she wanted to try it. I’m not particular. Just enjoying the surprise visit and time with them.
We go in.
We sit. We order.
I ordered a salad. I was breaking out of my ‘grilled chicken with all the vegies you can shove on the plate’ doldrums and ordered a salad made with fruit all over it and mixed in with it.
I was quite pleased with myself. Stepping outside of my self and being adventurous and all. Salad, with vegies and fruit. Who would have thought this up?
In not too long of a wait our very large and pretty salads are brought out and waitress goes to the table about ten feet away. Daughter gets ready to eat her salad while also prepping her Daughter’s lunch. I have my lovely and colorful salad in front of me. I take a bite.
I wished I had not taken a bite.
Hmmmm. Well now. That just did not taste right. I told daughter who is getting ready to take her first bite that there is something wrong with my salad. Just as we hear waitress say “we had our daughter at the hospital and she’s covered in a rash”. Daughter stops, literally with the fork in her mouth, food just waiting there. I look at her. She looks at me. She can’t make herself eat it. As waitress goes on and says “they say she had an allergic reaction so I’m doing everything by myself while husband is home with daughter”.
Daughter takes food out of her mouth. Whispers “should we eat it?” I told her I can’t eat mine. Somethings wrong with it. I told her to taste the fruit on mine. She doesn’t want to. But I am The Mom and I make her.
She tastes it and says “it takes like alcohol”. I’m not an alcohol drinker so I didn’t really have a familiarity to the taste, I just knew it was wrong. I told her the fruit had fermented. Her salad looked amazing (but so did mine). Her’s didn’t have fruit. So she tried it. Liked it. Decided it would be okay to eat.
Waitress comes to the table and I told her the fruit had gone bad. She said “oh? no? I didn’t know.” Which was an assumption I had already made. If she had known and served it I would have been upset. I told her it was okay, I didn’t expect her to make my food and eat it. She kind of smiled but I don’t think she got it. She wanted to know if I wanted another salad. I told her no, it was okay. Daughter and I had ordered a sandwich to split and I would just get dessert. She gave a sad little face and walked away.
She brought us rolls. The plate was all wet. She got daughter more pop to drink.
She went from table to table to kitchen to table to table to kitchen. Non stop.
Every time she came to the table she asked if she could get us something.
At one point I asked for a piece of cheesecake. I didn’t think it would be too much trouble. It was already sitting in a pie counter, waiting to be served.
She got it to me.
I went to pay the bill.
It was very very cheap.
I asked her if she was sure she got Daughter’s salad. Yes. Both pops? Yes. Hotdog? Yes. Sandwich? Yes. The three cookies I purchased for them to take home? Yes. The cheesecake? Yes.
I told her it didn’t seem like the bill was enough. She said I got a discount because of where I work and pointed at my badge.
Hmmm.
Okay. I paid and went back to the table.
I put down a tip of about 35%
I love my daughter. She added more to the tip.
Sometimes people deserve tips for serving fermented fruit so that to fill up you have to eat cheesecake.
And they do it with a smile.
While their child is sick.
Sometimes you just have to go to work to pay the bills when all you want to do is stay home with your sick child.
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I know. I was listening to her. Watching her. And sitting there with someone who I remember sitting up ALL night holding because she was sick and it was all I could do. And there sat another little one we would do the same thing for. Do what you have to do to take care of and provide for your kids. It made me quite grateful for being able to sit there with one of mine.
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Colleen, this read like a scene from a movie. And, I couldn’t think of a better ending. What a sweetie you are to bless this woman with a sick child. You were meant to be there in that very moment. Cheesecake, fermented fruit, or not! 🙂
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Thanks Anka. I felt kind of blessed myself. There she is working her butt off while her child is sick. She was probably worried she had upset me (not at all). WOrried I may get huffy (not at all). Or just frazzled and worried she’d have to expend more energy she didn’t have. I felt lucky to have been sitting there. With my child. And her child. While this woman couldn’t be with hers. SOme things matter more than other things. And cheesecake and fermented fruit didn’t seem so important. 🙂
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I love the way the universe conspired to give you cheesecake. Delish!
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I know, how gracious was the universe to me? I was pretty lucky.
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I know, eh? My son and hubby once ordered a pizza from a local pizzeria – and after and hour there was still no pizza – so they went to the store and found the owner swamped – his staff had not shown up for work. He is an honest and hard-working man so my hubby and son volunteer their services to help him – he reluctantly but happily took them up – hubby behind the bar (heès not a bar- tender) and son ddoing dishes. the ownere – at the end of the night – hired my son and gave hubby a bottle of wine. Hubby and son got more out of the experience than the owner for a good deed well done. It is indeed better to give than to receive – no matter what the postiion.
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THIS is a fantastic story! We should hear more about this! Thank you for sharing it. What a great way to make a good impression for a job! 🙂
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Awww I’ll bet that made her day. 🙂 Did someone say cake?
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She was so matter of fact about doing what she had to do. Work. Serve. Clear the table. Serve that table. Oh my daughter is sick. I hope she got a break and her day started to turn around.
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me too 🙂
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Oh an btw as i was reading this, i was eating a grilled chicken salad for my dinner, and wishing it had raspberries on it 😉
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That happens to sound very GOOD!
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it actually is with raspberry vinaigrette and feta…nom nom
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So sweet of you guys! Such awesome family members I have! ❤
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Aw shucks Nessie. You woudl have done the same thing. 😉
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Being a good tipper brings me joy. Having sick kids does not bring me joy. 🙂
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Very perfectly stated! I hope her little one is better today!
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You are such a great storyteller! I felt as if I was there. Maybe it’s cause I am so darn hungry! 😉 Another great post!
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Thank you Marsha! I’m always hungry so maybe it is easy to put that out there !
Thanks for the nice words about the storyteller!
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Oh, this is so great! I usually don’t need a reason to have a piece of cheesecake but getting served fermented fruit would certainly make me feel better about my decision! And great job on giving that waitress a little joy on a day she probably most certainly needed it!
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I remember when my daughter started working in fast food and she would come home and tell me about the people who were kind, and the people who were not. When I’m in situations like that, when these people return home and tell their stories to their parents, spouses, children-I need to be aware of what kind of story I want them telling about me! 🙂 And there is MUCH less guilt around cheesecake when it’s all you have to eat!
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Sorry, about your lunch …. in away the waitress should have notice that there was something wrong with the fruit – if it doesn’t look good … it will not taste good. I would say she had some part in it – we should never serve what we don’t want to eat ourselve.
Still she really tired to fix things right for you – and she was in a stressful situation with her sick child. I would have done the same .. give her a good tip.
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It all turned out for the best once I had that piece of turtle cheesecake! 😉
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Wait, there is another choice besides cheesecake? No, no. Surely you were looking at the wrong part of the menu. ❤ Great story. xxx
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Right? You would THINK there would have been other options. But…well, Red, I just couldn’t SEE any other option. 😉
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You were that ladies God moment! 😉
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Oh my. Wow. I did not think that. But it feels good to think I could have been! 🙂
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😀
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You should get a discount wherever you go because you’re so awesome.
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Hahahahaha! YOu should be my PR person! 🙂
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