Stories of Kindness from Around the World

Nanny's Birthday Lunch


--by misskarla, posted Feb 15, 2007

Last weekend, a few of us drove to Oklahoma to see my husband's mother, who is now in a nursing home.  We wanted to take her out to lunch to celebrate her 88th birthday.  We decided to go to an all you can eat buffet.  Now when I said there was a few of us, I should have mentioned 10 people in all.  When you have over 50 members in your family, 10 is a few to us but not to the waitress at the buffet.

The waitress began clearing off a couple of tables and moved  the tables together.  Then she started running around the room to gather up enough chairs so we were all able to sit together.  It was on a Sunday, and  the peak time for  lunch.  The place was packed.  You had to get a clean plate for salad, entries and desert.  I figured we used at least 30 plates. 

By the time we finished eating, the room we were in had cleared out.  The waitress closed the doors and we had the room all to ourselves.  We were able to stay there and sing Happy Birthday to Nanny and let her open her gifts.  Everyone was taking pictures and having a wonderful time.  Nanny said it was the best day of her life.  When we finally got ready to leave, everyone added to the tip for our waitress and  I left a SMILE card on the top of the pile of money.  She had made our day wonderful.  I even took a picture of the pile of money and the Smile card.

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Readers Comments

myturn wrote: I am a waitress, and for your server to know everything that she did was appreciated had to make her feel great.
austinfriends2 wrote: What a wonderful birthday for everyone. Congratulations to all of you, but especially mother inlaw for having such an amazing family. Sounds like a group I would want to be a part of..
MakeSomeoneSmile wrote: What a great story! That is very nice that you left the card for the waitress. I'm sure it made her day and reinforced that kindness is appreciated!
Samsonmybf wrote: That is so nice.....It brings back memories of my Nana.
I bet you all were the talk of the nursing home when she returned!! :)

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